In Matthew 16 we have a record of Peter’s great confession, “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God.” Shortly after this confession of faith and revelation we find Peter being rebuked by Jesus. After Peter made his confession and Jesus’ identity as the Messiah was revealed, Jesus began teaching the disciples about the fullness of His calling, His suffering, death and resurrection. Peter pulled Jesus aside and rebuked Him, saying that He would not suffer these things. It was at this time that Jesus famously and sternly rebuked Peter, “Get behind me Satan!” Jesus went on to reveal what the true issue was, “you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men.” Peter quickly went from blessing to rebuke, from the great confession to one of the most difficult rebukes found in Scripture. How and why did this all happen? I believe that what happened with Peter is something that happens with most if not all of us. We receive revelation from God, we have an experience that is life altering and invigorating but there is still something left that must be done, our minds need to be changed.
Romans 12 tells us to be “transformed by the renewing of our minds.” This is a work that is done by the Holy Spirit but it is done through our yielding, through our trusting and through our realizing the need to be changed. I believe that the greatest adjustment that we all have to made is to have our minds renewed. To “no longer be conformed to this world” means to think differently. Before we can ever act differently from the world we must think differently, believe differently, trust differently and surrender differently. Peter’s issue was not that he did not hear from God, we already know that he did, it was that his mind had not been changed. He still saw things from the same old point of view, he still judged and dreamed according to his understanding rather than according to God’s will. I pray today that we will all give God control of our minds, that we will choose to be transformed and that when we find ourselves put in familiar positions that we will have new reactions, new beliefs, new hope and new trust. The greatest adjustment of our lives will be when we give God our minds, when we ask for His mind in return and when we begin to believe what He says much more than what we understand.