The Danger of Distance

Here’s this week’s entry from Pray Big for Your Life

 

Deadly Distance

Following Jesus at a distance can be very dangerous. When you’re at the back of the pack, it’s easy to get picked off by the enemy. The safest place in Christ-following is right next to Jesus.

The disciple Peter learned this lesson the hard way. On the night that Jesus was arrested, Peter had gone out of his way to declare his loyalty to Jesus. He made the bold claim in front of the rest of the disciples that he was ready to die for Jesus. But later, after Jesus had been arrested and he had taken off a soldier’s ear with a wild swing of his sword, Peter lost some of his nerve. He didn’t abandon Jesus entirely, but he didn’t stay at Jesus’s side, either.

Luke described what happened: “Then seizing him (Jesus), they led him away and took him into the house of the high priest. Peter followed at a distance,” (Luke 22:54). It was that “distance” that would get Peter into serious trouble. Peter was too enough away from Christ to be easily identifiable as a disciple. Within the hour, he would deny three times that he even knew Jesus. What a long fall for Peter. In just a matter of hours he went from swearing his allegiance to Jesus and risking his life for him, to swearing that he didn’t know him. What was the difference? Lack of proximity.

It’s never a good idea to put distance between you and Jesus. If you do, you just might end up falling like Peter did. So pray for your relationship with Christ. Pray that you will always be near to him. Pray that there would be no distance between you.

 

Just a Closer Walk with Thee

When Jesus called his disciples, he made them an unusual offer. Mark tells us that Jesus “appointed twelve–designating them apostles–that they might be with him . . . ,” (Mark 3:14). Part of Jesus’s invitation to his disciples was to just spend time with him. He wasn’t looking for mere workers; he wanted brothers. He wanted men that he could pour himself into and reproduce in his image. His unconventional strategy paid off.

Years later, after Jesus had ascended into heaven, Peter and John were confronted by the same tribunal that had condemned Jesus. Luke tells us that, “When they (the members of the tribunal) saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus,” (Acts 4:13). There was something strange, almost eerily familiar about the men who were proclaiming Christ. Finally, the members of the tribunal made the connection: These same men had walked with, trained with and lived with Jesus.

Do you see the obvious difference in Peter when compared to the night he denied Christ? When he followed Jesus from a distance, he was quick to fall. But later, when he crossed over the line of radical obedience and forever closed the distance between himself and Christ, he became a bold disciple. That’s what proximity does. The closer you are to Jesus—the more you walk with him and the less distance you allow to grow between you–the easier it is to live for him.

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