We often forget that the story of Peter doesn’t end after he denies Jesus three times before His Crucifixion. Eventually, Peter becomes the rock on which Jesus built His church.
However, Liz Curtis Higgs says that Peter was built up after he was brought down by God.
“Before God could use him in this amazing way, Peter really went through it. Peter had to be ground down until there was nothing left of Peter and he could belong wholly to Christ.
The same concept applies for us; we are have to come to the end of ourselves to surrender to God.
“We ourselves have to die. We have to die to this world, the love of this world, the attachment to this world, and become fully attached, fully cleaved to Christ, and become alive in Him.”
Liz reminds us that we won’t be fully alive in Christ until we are in heaven with God.
“I can’t wait for that day. The reality is that this is the hope that He offers us and for me, it’s the only thing that gets me through this dark world. I almost hate to look at the news because it’s so filled with darkness, death, and all kinds of suffering and grief.”
So often it’s easy to let our hope rest in the world around us, but Liz says we have someone much better to put our hope in.
“So the hope that we hold onto can’t really be in this world or its leaders. It has to be on Jesus. The resurrection was His way of saying, people; this is where you’re going. Get your eyes focused on this. This world is short, eternity is long. Peter who got flattened to the ground, now rises up to serve God in a mighty way.”
How has God called you to die to yourself and the world and live in Him?
Liz Curtis Higgs is the author of more than 30 books, with 4.5 million copies in print. In her best-selling Bad Girls of the Bible series, Liz breathes new life into ancient tales about the most famous—and infamous—women in scriptural history, from Bathsheba to Mary Magdalene. Liz’s award-winning historical novels, which transport the stories of Rebekah, Leah, Rachel, Dinah, Naomi, and Ruth to eighteenth-century Scotland, also invite readers to view biblical characters in a new light.
Key Scripture: Romans 6:5
Featured Songs: Unfinished – Mandisa; Press On – Building 429; Press On – Mandisa
Dying to the world
