But He (Jesus) turned and said to Peter, “Get behind Me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me. For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.” (Matthew 16:23 ESV)
I don’t know if you have ever heard the phrase said to you before, “you are more of a hindrance than a help”. I think at one time or another we’ve all heard it, whether we’ve said it to someone else or we’ve been on the receiving end of it ourselves. Sometimes we think we are being helpful, and perhaps our heart wants to help, but in fact we are more of a hindrance than anything else. We get in the way. We say the wrong thing. We do the wrong thing. We might genuinely want to help but in our finite knowledge, we don’t always see the bigger picture or know what the end result is supposed to be. Often, we take the place of God, believing we know best. Pride penetrates the heart, and out of the abundance of the heart so the mouth speaks.
Isn’t it interesting that just after Jesus said to Peter that “on this rock I will build My church”, that a moment later Peter opens his mouth to speak to rebuke the Lord, as if he knew better than the Christ! The rock on which the church would be built quickly became the stumbling block hindering the work of God. The focus became the things of man, rather than the things of God. Pride paraded itself on the path of humility and threw out barriers and blockages in an attempt to prevent destiny. In that moment, Peter became a hindrance rather than a help.
You see the fact is – we don’t know best. We are not greater than our Master and man certainly does not know more than God. It is God who knows best and therefore it is He who our minds need to be set on. We as individuals and corporately as the church need to rid ourselves of pride, and start to walk the path of humility after the Lord Jesus Christ. For it is only then that we become a help rather than a hindrance.
As we meditate on this, let us come before the Lord and ask Him to search us for any pride that may prove to be a hindrance to the furtherance of the Kingdom of God. Let us humble ourselves before Him and repent of our sins. Let us resolve in our hearts to be a help by setting our minds on the things of God, where we deny ourselves and take up our cross daily and follow Him.
Dear Lord, help us this day to remove anything within us that would hinder us or that would cause our focus to shift off You and on to man. Lord, we need You, and Lord, we want You, so come and have Your way in us today. Amen.