Daily Encouragement: Year 1, Day 4
Adapted from Handbook to Leadership
To discover the lengths to which God will go to forge steel into our character, let’s walk through the smelting furnace along with Peter. This man had denied Jesus at a critical time; yet later in his life he suffered beatings, imprisonment, and eventually death rather than denying Him again.
Such character is not developed in a single event. We know that Jesus’ resurrection had a profound influence on Peter’s character transformation. But the manner in which Jesus helped Peter to recover from the worst failure of his life should afford us great encouragement about asking the same Lord Jesus to help us to develop strength of character as well (see John 21:15–17).
In Acts 1–12 we see Peter as the prominent leader in the fledgling church. His strength of character and conviction were a source of inspiration, challenge, and encouragement to many. Our Lord is still seeking men and women who will answer, “Yes Lord, you know that I love you,” (John 21:17) and who will then develop the character qualities needed to be a godly leader.