Simon, son of John

Lord help me to not just Phileo love you but love you with Agape love.

Yes Lord,

You know that I love You.

Recently I had a newfound appreciation for this gem.

The reason why the Lord asked Peter 3 times "do you love me" was because previously he denied the Lord 3 times. The Lord was trying to restore Peter's love for Him!

Many times when we suffer failure and defeat, we would often start doubting if our love for the Lord was ever genuine to begin with. Peter must have felt so defeated at the time and thought He let the Lord down because of His failure. Maybe he even doubted if he ever loved the Lord.

But Jesus came and restored Peter's love for Him. In John 21 He was the shepherd & overseer of Peter's soul. If Peter didn't have this failure he could never have shepherded anyone. It is through this failure that Peter realized that he was good for nothing but death and burial, and he was only able to shepherd others with Christ in him as the chief shepherd.

If we never experience Christ as our shepherd, we can never shepherd others. Many times I fail, and I thought I don't love the Lord anymore. But a brother once told me that "just because you drifted away from God for some times, doesn't mean you don't love the Lord anymore. You just have to turn back." We need to restore our love for Christ every day, by turning our hearts back to Him for a renewed heart. A renewed heart is an old heart made new. And we can renew our love for the Lord every day, just like Peter.

"You know that I love You"

Peter, are you so sure? What a bold, presumptuous thing to tell your Lord! Of course He "knows", but do you?

This is why He had to ask you three times. He knows your love toward Him, but in His asking, you are grieved the third time. Perhaps as a gentle reminder of the love you claimed to have that will follow Him to the end. But now you realise that it is natural, unreliable; so much so that the issue was denial!

Your natural confidence in your love toward the Lord must be dealt with by this failure; yet you may have been disappointed and have given up.

The Lord came to restore your love toward Him, to charge you with the shepherding of His church, and to prepare you for your martyrdom so that you would not follow Him with any confidence in your natural strength.

So Peter, I ask you,

Do you love Me?

In John 21, Simon Peter and Thomas caught no fish after a whole night of fishing. But as soon as the morning broke, the Lord appeared to them on the shore, and immediately they caught many fish, to the point that they actually couldn't even haul it in anymore due to the abundance of fish! Once they dragged the net of fish to shore, the Lord made them breakfast, then asked Peter 3 times, "Simon, son of John, do you love Me?" Peter responded "yes" every single time, and the Lord simply answered with "Feed my lambs", "Shepherd my sheep", and "Feed my sheep" all three times.

The Lord is so sweet to Peter. He made him breakfast, then asked him to feed the others. Before we serve the Lord, He wants us to simply enjoy Him first before anything else. Christ shepherded us, so that we can shepherd others. He is our big brother and our pattern. Lord, teach me how to serve You. I don't really know how to.. but you know that I love You. I will shepherd Your sheep.

The Lord touched me with this song very much. I love singing this song to the Lord every morning. He is so sweet to me.