Matthew 26:74

What a singular wish! The singular thing about it is the blot in the middle —after you have suffered a little while. What would you think of receiving this wish from a friend?

Yet this is what Peter desired for those to whom he wrote: all the gifts and the graces of the Christ-life in perfection, but not until after they had “suffered a little while.” Peter wrote out of the bitter experience of his own past: he had come into his kingdom too soon; he had obtained his crown before he could support its cares. His faith had been drenched in the brine; his love had been cooled in the judgment hall as he sat by the fire and cried, “I don’t know the man!” (Matthew 26:74).