“Jesus looked at him and said, ‘You are Simon son of John. You will be called Peter’.” — JOHN 1:42

I love that Jesus said to Peter, ‘You are… You will be…’ He knows exactly who we are, and He knows exactly what He will make us. The name Jesus gives Simon is significant. ‘Peter’ in Aramaic (the mother tongue of Jesus), means ‘rock’. Jesus was telling him, “You are who you are now, Simon – wishy washy, uncertain, full of enthusiasm but weak on action, but I know who you are going to be. You will be Peter… You will be ‘rock’.” Rock carries connotations of being solid, reliable, stable, strong; all of which Jesus would form in the unstable, impetuous and weak man Simon was known to be.

Throughout the Gospels, there are times where Simon, despite his good intentions, was the one to speak out of line and say the wrong thing. The one time he got it right was when he answered Jesus, saying, “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God.” But a few minutes later he was back to normal when Jesus tells His disciples He would be crucified at the hands of wicked men. And Peter responds, “Never Lord. This will never happen to you”. Jesus had to say to him, ‘Get behind me Satan, you are a stumbling block to me, you do not have in mind the things of God but the things of men’ (Matthew 16.23). At the last Passover Supper, Simon Peter said to Him, “I will never leave you. Even if I have to die with you, I will never disown you.” But he did – three times before the rooster crowed.

During his three years with Jesus, Peter was more sand than rock, and it is interesting to observe that while the other disciples called him ‘Simon Peter’, Jesus always called him ‘Simon’. But on the day of Pentecost Simon became a changed man. Indwelt by the Spirit of Christ, he stood up and boldly proclaimed the word of God with courage and confidence to thousands of people. He became the ‘rock’ Jesus said he would be, and his life from then on became an unwavering witness for Christ, through easy times and through much suffering.

When we come to Christ, we don’t remain static. He has an agenda that will make us what He wants us to be. When He said to some of his disciples, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men,” remember that, ‘Follow me’ – is our business, and ‘I will make you’ – is His business.

PRAYER: Dear Lord, It is so good to know that who I am is one thing, but who I will become is your business. It is your power, your direction and love that brings about change.

TO REFLECT UPON: What area of my life has Christ had the greatest impact in changing me? Is that evidenced in my interaction with others and in being a witness for Him?