“Lord, if it’s You,” Peter answered Him, “command me to come to You on the water.”
Matthew 14:28
I know several young people who bless their communities by serving as emergency personnel-firefighters, trauma nurses, paramedics, police, and other vital services. Some are volunteers, for others it is their paid profession. But whether paid or not, all of them undergo hundreds, or even thousands, of hours of training. Much of that training involves various kinds of drills and simulations. The training is repetitive and intensive. Why is that?
The purpose is that each individual will become conditioned to respond in the right way regardless of the chaos around them. It shapes their instincts so that they do what they need to do without stopping to think about it.
People in these professions are not immune to fear. But they are trained to:
- Know the mission
- Trust their training
- Rely on their team
- Make split-second decisions
- Keep going, even when it’s terrifying
And that training makes all the difference.
When Jesus walked with His disciples, He spent three years training them. Their natural instincts and previous understanding of the world constantly got in the way causing them to respond in the wrong way. Let’s focus for a minute on Peter. If ever there was a disciple we can relate to, it’s Peter.
Peter was brave, passionate, and deeply loyal. But he was also impulsive, proud, reactive, and prone to doubt. In many ways, he is the prototype for the modern believer—eager to follow Jesus wholeheartedly, but constantly tripping over his own humanity.
And yet, despite his many missteps, Jesus never discards Peter. He rebukes him, yes. But He also restores him, commissions him, and uses him mightily. That transformation—from boldness to failure to restoration—is the very story so many of us live over and over again.
So what can we learn from Peter about what it means to truly trust Jesus? And what should we do when we fail?
Let’s walk through some of Peter’s most vivid moments of doubt, fear, and failure—and discover how Jesus responds.
Let’s start with the time when the disciples are in a boat, battered by waves, and Jesus comes to them walking on the water. They’re terrified. They think He’s a ghost. Jesus reassures them: “Take courage. It is I. Do not be afraid.”
Peter—bold as ever—calls back: “Lord, if it is You, tell me to come to You on the water.”
This sounds brave, but look again: “If it is You…” It’s a test. A conditional. Peter doesn’t trust Jesus’ voice or presence; he demands proof. When he gets it, he steps out in faith—but the moment the wind picks up, Peter panics, takes his eyes off Jesus, and begins to sink.
Jesus catches him and says, “You of little faith, why did you doubt?”
We can be just like Peter. We want to trust, but we also want to control. We say, “If it’s really You, Jesus, prove it. Show me. Let me test You.” And then we step out in faith only to falter the moment circumstances turn scary.
True trust doesn’t require confirmation. It requires surrender.
“This shall never happen to You!”
Matthew 16:21-23
When Jesus begins to tell His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem, suffer, and be killed, Peter pulls Him aside and rebukes Him. Can you imagine that? Rebuking Jesus!
“Never, Lord! This shall never happen to You!”
Peter thinks he’s protecting Jesus. But what he’s really doing is asserting his own understanding over God’s plan. He cannot fathom that suffering could be part of the mission.
Jesus responds with words that cut: “Get behind Me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to Me. You do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.”
That’s what happens when we demand that God operate according to our logic. We think we know best. We trust our instincts more than we trust His Word. But Jesus calls that kind of thinking a stumbling block.
If we want to truly trust Him, we have to let go of the idea that we know what God should do.
“You shall never wash my feet.”
John 13:6-8
At the Last Supper, Jesus kneels to wash the disciples’ feet—a task reserved for the lowest servant. When He comes to Peter, Peter resists: “You shall never wash my feet.”
He’s uncomfortable with the image of his Lord stooping so low. It doesn’t fit his framework of strength and leadership.
But Jesus tells him: “Unless I wash you, you have no part with Me.”
Peter, to his credit, immediately swings back: “Then, Lord, not just my feet but my hands and my head as well!”
Here again, Peter trusts his feelings over Jesus’ words. He feels it’s inappropriate. He doesn’t trust the upside-down kingdom where greatness looks like servanthood.
We do the same when we resist God’s methods because they don’t make sense to us. But real trust means letting Jesus do what only He can do, even when it offends our pride.
Then, at the Last Supper, Jesus tells His disciples that they will all fall away. Peter, always the loudest, declares: “Even if all fall away, I will not.”
Jesus gently corrects him: “Truly I tell you, today—yes, tonight—before the rooster crows twice, you yourself will disown Me three times.” (see Mark 14:29-31 for the complete text)
Peter insists: “Even if I have to die with You, I will never disown You!”
And yet, just hours later, Peter is warming himself by a fire in the courtyard, denying to a servant girl, not a soldier or anyone in authority, with increasing intensity that he even knows Jesus.
How does this happen?
Peter trusted his devotion more than he trusted Jesus’ prediction. He thought himself strong. He believed in his own loyalty more than in Christ’s foresight. That, too, is a kind of mistrust.
When we think we can handle it, we won’t fall, we are the exception, we are setting ourselves up for collapse. Confidence in the flesh always fails.
“He went outside and wept bitterly.”
Luke 22:62
When Peter hears the rooster crow and realizes what he has done, the text says: “He went outside and wept bitterly.”
This is the turning point. Peter is crushed by the weight of his failure. His trust is shattered—not just in Jesus, but in himself.
And yet, this is exactly where grace meets him.
After the resurrection, Jesus meets Peter on the shore. They eat together. And then Jesus asks the question:
“Simon son of John, do you love Me more than these?”
Three times He asks. Three times Peter answers, each time with growing humility. And each time, Jesus responds not with condemnation but with commission:
“Feed My lambs. Take care of My sheep. Feed My sheep.” (see John 21:15-17 for the full account)
Jesus doesn’t discard Peter. He reinstates him.
Peter failed spectacularly—but Jesus doesn’t define him by that failure. He calls him forward.
What does this mean for us? We are Peter. We question. We doubt. We try to take charge. We resist God’s methods. We trust our own strength. We fail. And sometimes, we fail publicly and painfully.
But Jesus does not let that be the end of the story.
When we doubt His voice: He reaches out and catches us.
When we reject His plan: He corrects and teaches us.
When we resist His method: He shows us the necessity of humility.
When we boast in our own strength: He lets us fall and then picks us up.
When we deny Him: He forgives and restores us.
Trusting Jesus means giving up our need for certainty, our desire for control, and our pride in our own ability.
It means saying, “Even when I don’t understand, I will follow. Even when I’m afraid, I will obey. Even when I’ve failed, I will return.”
So what should you do if you find yourself in Peter’s shoes?
- Acknowledge the failure – Be honest. Peter wept bitterly. Don’t downplay it.
- Run toward Jesus, not away – Peter returned to the others. He didn’t isolate himself.
- Receive His grace and let Him restore you – Jesus doesn’t lecture. He invites Peter to breakfast. Don’t hide in shame. Let Him ask the hard questions.
- Keep training yourself to surrender more fully – Repetition and intensive training rewire our brains. Prioritize daily time reading God’s Word! Yes, you are busy, sure but you can find the time. Listen to the audio bible on your drive to work instead of the radio, spend that half hour reading scripture instead of watching TV, get up a little earlier and let Jesus join you for your morning coffee, have lunch alone in your car with a take-out burger and your Bible open on the passenger’s seat.
- Get back to work – Jesus says, “Feed My sheep.” Your mission isn’t over.
In the end Peter teaches us that faith is not the absence of failure. It’s what you do afterward that reveals whether you trust Jesus or just yourself.
You will stumble. But if you get back up and fix your eyes on Christ, He will still use you.
So trust Him. Not just with your successes, but with your stumbles. Not just with your best, but with your worst.
Because He is trustworthy—even when you are not.
a surrendered life 