April 17

The third time He said to him, “Simon son of John, do you love Me?” Peter replied, “Lord, You know all things; You know that I love You!” — John 21:17

You look into your life today and what do you see there? Failures, broken purposes, promises not kept, commandments violated, purity stained, everything sullied! Jesus comes and looks into your face, with that calm, holy, searching gaze of His, and says, “Do you love Me?” As you are about to answer, you think of all you have done that has been dishonorable and sinful. You are speechless before Him. Yet you are conscious that you do love Him; that in your heart, beneath all your sins, failures, and faults–there is love for Him. What a comfort it is to cast yourself on His knowledge of what is in you! Perhaps men sneer, and say that one who has stumbled as you have done–surely cannot love Christ. But Christ knows the love, even amid the sins and failures.

I am glad that perfection is not the test of discipleship. We may be full of faults. We go on stumbling every day. We do nothing beautifully. We misrepresent the Christ whose name we bear. We hurt the friends we want to help.

Christ knows all these sad failures. He looks at the stained scroll we fold up at the close of the day–with the blots on it. But while He sees the worst, He sees also the best; and He loves on loves unto the uttermost! “Lord, You know all things; You know that I love You!”