After Jesus ascended to Heaven, the apostles and the other disciples returned to Jerusalem. They arrived at a house and went to the second floor where they were staying. All in all, they were about 120 believers. Peter stood up and addressed everybody, "Brothers, the Word of God had to be fulfilled concerning Judas, who guided those who arrested Jesus. This was predicted long ago by the Holy Spirit, speaking through King David. Judas was one of us and shared in the ministry with us...so now we must choose a replacement for Judas from among the men who were with us the entire time we were traveling with the Lord Jesus— from the time he was baptized by John until the day he was taken from us. Whoever is chosen will join us as a witness of Jesus' resurrection." They nominated Joseph and Matthias, and after praying for guidance, Mattias was chosen. (Acts 1:12-26).
It was amazing to see Peter leading and taking care of the believers. We could see the restoration that Jesus had done in Peter's life. Despite betraying Jesus, God forgave and brought him from guilt and shame to be the leader God wanted him to be. And Peter was leading the believers because of his love for Jesus. When Jesus was restoring Peter by asking him if he loved Him, Peter replied that he loved Him. Then Jesus commanded him to lead and take care of his sheep (John 21:15-19). The sheep that Jesus was referring to was the believers.
The spiritual lesson we can learn from Peter's life is that God is the forgiver and restorer of our life. No matter how we fail and make wrong decisions in life, God is our forgiver and restorer of our life. The only thing we need to do is to humble ourselves before Him and surrender our lives back to Him. We do not need to beat ourselves up with shame and guilt. The moment we turn away from our sins and confess our sins to Jesus, He immediately forgives us and begins to restore us. God will never use our past failures and sins against us because He already paid the penalty for our sins with His death and resurrection.
Ask yourself these questions for application: (Think through carefully and meditate on the questions while answering these questions, and let the Spirit of God speaks to you) What should I do when I sin and make a wrong decision? Do I believe that God can forgive and restore my life? Why am I not guilty of the sins I committed after I repent and confess my sin to Jesus?
Write down all the worries you face today and lift them up to God.
Prayer:
Father in Heaven, You are the God of restoration. I am blessed to see how you restored Peter's life after He miserably failed you. Please help me not to live in guilt and shame for my past sins and failures when I already repented and confessed them to you. Please help me to live in your forgiveness and restoration. If there is any sin in my life at this time, I confess them to you, and please forgive me. Thank you for your forgiveness and restoration. In Your name Jesus, I pray. Amen.