The Cover Up

Then the disciple Jesus loved said to Peter, “It’s the Lord!” When Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he put on his tunic (for he had stripped for work), jumped into the water, and headed to shore. (John 21:7 NLT)

This is one of my favorite verses because it describes how we are in our relationship with God. Peter was in the boat and to get to the boat to Jesus required him swimming, so why did he put his clothes on to go swimming? It doesn't make sense...unless...you are covering something up that you don't want Jesus to see. Again, it doesn't make sense because Jesus already knows everything about you, what you did, etc. We are exactly the same way. We don't want God to see our imperfections, our flaws, the things that we think are wrong with us, so we try to cover them up with "sugar coated" words, good deeds, things we think will distract God from seeing our flaws, our mistakes and our imperfections. When we do this, we are not fooling God, but fooling ourselves AND we are preventing God from working on our imperfections and flaws. It is only when we are truly honest with ourselves and with God that He can work on us, healing us, teaching us. God already knows everything about us, what we think, what we do and what we say, so why do we try to cover up something that He already knows...again, we are only fooling ourselves. Make no mistake...even with our imperfections and mistakes...He still loves us and will always love us. But He wants the best for us, so be honest with Him.

Take Away: A challenge: the next time you are tempted to hide something you did or said that you are ashamed of, make the choice to be honest with God and see the difference!