On the night before Jesus was crucified, Peter made a bold promise. Jesus had just told His disciples that they would all abandon Him, and Peter, confident and sincere, said that even if everyone else fell away, he never would. Jesus looked at him and told him plainly that before the rooster crowed, Peter would deny Him three times. Peter insisted again, even if I must die with you, I will not deny you. And I want you to notice something about Peter in that moment: he meant every word of it. He loved Jesus. He did not want to deny Him.
But a few hours later, standing near a fire in the courtyard, when a servant girl pointed at him and said he had been with Jesus, Peter denied it. Then he denied it again. And a third time, even with cursing, until the rooster crowed and Jesus turned and looked straight at him. Scripture says Peter went out and wept bitterly.
Now fast forward a few weeks. This same Peter, after the Holy Spirit came upon him on the day of Pentecost, stood up in front of thousands of people in Jerusalem and preached boldly about the very Jesus he had denied. Later, when the same religious leaders who had condemned Jesus arrested him and warned him to stop preaching, Peter told them plainly that he could not stop speaking about what he had seen and heard. He was thrown into prison, and in Acts chapter 12, the night before he was scheduled to stand trial, he was so at peace that he was fast asleep between two soldiers, chained, and an angel had to wake him up.
Same man. Same personality. Same love for Jesus. What changed? The grace and capacity to stand had not yet been released to him on the night he failed, and it was fully released to him afterward.
Willing Is Not the Same as Able
I want us to sit with that for a moment, because it carries a truth many believers need to hear. Peter did not fail because he didn’t love Jesus, or because he lacked sincerity, or because he wasn’t trying hard enough. Jesus actually spoke to this directly in the garden that same night when He said, the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak. Peter had the desire, but he did not yet have the empowerment.
A lot of us go through life frustrated with ourselves for the same reason. We want to do the right thing, we want to stand strong, we want to walk in boldness and victory, but when the pressure hits, we find ourselves falling short of what we truly intended. And the temptation is to conclude that we simply need to try harder, pray longer on our own strength, or beat ourselves up until we do better. But Peter’s story shows us the real issue is not a lack of effort, it’s a lack of grace, because grace is the empowerment of God that equips you to do what you could never do on your own.
Our Power Is Limited, God’s Power Is Limitless
This is why we need the grace of God to overcome the big challenges in our lives. Our power is limited. Our strength runs out. Our wisdom has boundaries. But God’s power is limitless, and grace is the channel through which that limitless power flows into our limited human capacity.
In 2 Corinthians 12:9, the Lord told Paul, my grace is sufficient for thee, for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Notice that God didn’t promise to remove Paul’s weakness first, He promised that His grace would be enough, and that His strength would show up right inside Paul’s weakness. That’s what grace does. It doesn’t just forgive you for your failures, it empowers you to do extraordinary things that your natural ability could never produce.
So if you want to do extraordinary works, overcome big challenges, and walk in victory in areas where you’ve repeatedly fallen short, you need to always stay connected to the grace of God.
How Do You Increase in Grace?
This is the question that matters most, and the scripture gives us a clear answer. In 2 Peter 1:2, the same Peter we’ve been talking about, now a transformed, grace filled man, wrote these words, grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord.
Look at that carefully. Grace and peace are multiplied through knowledge. Not through striving, not through begging, not through trying to earn it, but through the knowledge of God. And where do we get the knowledge of God? Through His word. This means the more you read, study, and meditate on the word of God, the more grace is released onto your life. Peter himself learned this, which is why he wrote it down.
Acts 20:32 supports this same idea, where Paul tells the elders, I commend you to God, and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up, and to give you an inheritance among all them which are sanctified. The word of God is called the word of His grace, because it is through the word that grace is released and ministered to us.
What Happens When You Meditate on the Word
When you consistently read and meditate on the word of God, several powerful things begin to happen in your life.
- You gain a deeper revelation of who God is
Reading the word with a meditative heart moves God from being a distant idea to being a living, personal reality. You begin to understand His character, His faithfulness, His love, and His power in a way that surface level reading never produces. And when your understanding of God grows, your trust in Him grows alongside it.
- You understand your rights and authority as a child of God
The more you study scripture, the more you discover what already belongs to you as a child of God. You begin to see the authority Jesus has given you, the promises available to you, and the access you have to God’s throne of grace. A lot of believers live far below their privileges simply because they don’t know what’s been made available to them.
- You become convinced that all things are possible through God
Meditation on God’s word builds a settled conviction in your spirit that nothing is too hard for Him. Philippians 4:13 says, I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me. When this truth moves from head knowledge to heart revelation, impossible situations stop intimidating you the way they once did.
- You see that God wants you to prosper in every area of your life
Scripture makes it clear that God’s desire for His children is wholeness and success. 3 John 2 says, beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth. God designed you to be successful, and the more you study His word, the more you align your thinking with His desire for your life.
- Your faith increases
This is one of the most important results of increasing in grace. Romans 10:17 says, so then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. The more of God’s word you take in, the more your faith grows. And as your faith grows, you’re able to receive even more of what God has made available through grace, creating a beautiful cycle where grace increases faith, and faith opens the door to even more grace.
A Few Practical Ways to Start
I want to add a few simple ways you can begin practicing this today, since knowing the truth only helps when it turns into action.
First, set aside consistent time each day for the word, even if it’s just fifteen to twenty minutes at the beginning. Consistency matters far more than length when you’re building this habit.
Second, don’t just read, meditate. Joshua 1:8 tells us to meditate on the word day and night, that we may observe to do according to all that is written therein, and then we’ll make our way prosperous and have good success. Meditation means slowly turning a verse over in your mind, asking what it reveals about God, and thinking about how it applies to your own situation.
Third, speak the word out loud over your life. Hearing yourself declare scripture strengthens your faith and reinforces what you’re meditating on.
Fourth, stay surrounded by teaching and fellowship that feeds you the word. Peter himself spent three years sitting under Jesus’ teaching before he was fully equipped, and even then, he needed the Holy Spirit’s empowerment to walk it out.
From Failure to Boldness
Peter’s story doesn’t end at the courtyard fire, and neither does yours. After Jesus rose from the dead, He met Peter on the shore of the Sea of Galilee, restored him gently, and recommissioned him to feed His sheep. That restoration, combined with the Holy Spirit coming upon him at Pentecost, transformed Peter from a man who crumbled in front of a servant girl into a man who stood before rulers and religious leaders without fear, and slept peacefully in a prison cell chained between guards.
That same transformation is available to you. The grace that was released to Peter is available to every believer who positions themselves to receive it through the knowledge of God.
Conclusion
We need the grace of God to overcome big challenges in life, because our power is limited, but God’s power is limitless. And the way to increase in that grace is straightforward: grace and peace are multiplied to us through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, and that knowledge comes through reading, studying, and meditating on His word. The more of the word you take in, the more grace is released into your life, the deeper your revelation of who God is and who you are in Him, and the stronger your faith becomes. Peter failed when grace had not yet been released to him, and stood boldly when it was. Don’t spend your life trying harder in your own strength. Connect to His grace through His word, and watch how He empowers you to do extraordinary things you never thought you could.
