³⁸ Jesus replied, “Will you lay down your life for me? Truly I tell you, a rooster will not crow until you have denied me three times. (John 13:38 CSB)

It can seem as if when we are striving hardest to be our best we find ourselves at our worst. I will tell you that more often than not this is because we are striving to do our best by human standards. This, and we do not realize that we cannot be our best alone, we need to be in step with the indwelling Spirit every moment.

The tiniest thing can move us one moment from being at our best to the next being at our worst. This is the curse of our human nature and living in a fallen world. I may sound like a broken record here and I am not condoning human nature. It is something we should strive against constantly.

No, what I wish to point out, and may belabor at times, is that we must have a clear understanding of our human nature. We must remain on guard against our basal selves and strive continually for a higher nature. Not a nature that puts us above others, but one that keeps us humble, grateful and aware, continually aware.

For if we are not continually aware we may find ourselves, like Peter, going in just a moment from desiring to lay down our lives for Christ to denying him the next.