‘And while He was still speaking, behold, a multitude; and he who was called Judas, one of the twelve, went before them and drew near to Jesus to kiss Him. But Jesus said to him, “Judas, are you betraying the Son of Man with a kiss?” When those around Him saw what was going to happen, they said to Him, “Lord, shall we strike with the sword?” And one of them struck the servant of the high priest and cut off his right ear.’ Luke 22:47-50 NKJV
Here we see Judas in the act of betraying Jesus. At which time, Peter asks, “Lord, shall we strike with the sword?” Peter did what so many of us do and that’s ask the Lord for direction. I mean there’s nothing wrong with that, right? In that moment, you have to admit; he did do the right thing. But instead of waiting on the Lord’s response, he immediately reacts and strikes ‘the servant of the high priest and cuts off his right ear.’ Again, he did ask the Lord what to do; he just didn’t wait on the answer. He probably wasn’t even looking at Jesus when he asked, considering the circumstances. More than likely, he had his eyes on servant who had to have been too close to the Lord. He probably had his sword drawn and had already decided what he was going to do; he just wanted to do his due diligence and ask the Lord for permission to do it. And this is what so many of us do all the time. We already have our minds made up and then we ask, “Lord, do you think I should….?” And instead of waiting, we react.
In that moment, when a decision needed to be made, Peter made it. Though he sought the Lord, he truly didn’t wait for the answer. He did what so many of us do, in that we salve our conscious’ by saying, ‘Well, I asked the Lord.’ Then we breathe a sigh of relief and proceed to do what we want to do. We weren’t really asking. We were telling the Lord what we wanted to do and just wanted to run it by Him to see if it was okay. And when He doesn’t respond, we immediately assume that we have the go ahead. And like Peter, we go chopping people’s ears off and making a mess out of our lives. When if we’d have simply waited, we wouldn't need a miracle.
We can all learn from Peter. Instead of asking and reacting, we need to learn how to recognize that the Lord’s lack of response is the answer. The fact that the Lord says nothing should tell us that we should do nothing.
Pray this with me: Heavenly Father, please forgive me when I’ve asked You for something that I wanted to do and truly didn’t want Your response. I asked because I knew I should and I repent. Lord, teach me how to genuinely ask You for guidance and then help me to recognize Your answer or lack thereof. In Jesus’ name.
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