The Story of Peter

The Story of Peter

Peter sought counseling for his anger outbursts. Uncontrollable and unpredictable episodes of rage damaged every area of his life. Peter was a believer in Jesus Christ. His sins were forgiven, and he strived for goodness but could not achieve it. On Sundays, he felt sorrowfully repentant and readily made new promises to God for radical changes. Despite Sunday’s assertion, Mondays proved to be another failure for Peter to conform to a truthful life in Christ. As a result, Peter grew angrier with himself and the world around him. It was out of this deepening frustration that Peter finally took the advice of a church elder and considered getting help. 

Prayer counseling identified the root of bitterness and anger. Peter harbored resentment towards his parents, which was seeded in his early childhood. Peter was born with physical impairment, which his parents considered embarrassing and damaging to their social image. As a young child, Peter grew up isolated, kept behind locked doors and shut down windows. He was unjustifiably deprived of childhood’s simple joys. During his school years, Peter’s seclusion continued to grow, fed by his schoolmates’ cruelty and some of his teachers’ insensitivities towards his handicap. Deep in his heart, Peter judged his parents for causing him undeserved pain, and he hated his schoolmates and teachers, who further aggravated his suffering.

Peter did not shrivel in pain but fought against his misery by imploring a compensatory mechanism, which counteracted the absence of love, attention, and recognition in his life. Peter strove for and achieved academic excellence. From an early school age, he realized he had a brilliant mind. His intelligence became the source of attention and recognition he desperately desired. Peter began to enjoy his mind's power over people and found it easy to manipulate them for his own benefit. He became arrogant. His arrogance, though, did not propel him through his university studies; he was not so easily distinguished among many other equally brilliant young men and women. When he could not gain people’s recognition through hard academic work, Peter’s rage and arrogance turned against them. His friendships were minefields of broken promises and failed relationships. He could not retain employment, and all dealings associated with it were eroded. 

While, on the surface, he was arrogant, deep inside, Peter felt lonely and hurt. He longed for closeness, but his machinations drove prospective companions away. This further enraged Peter and hard-pressed him towards alcohol use for consolation. It was after a night of overindulgence that Peter wrecked his pickup truck and was arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol. 

Let’s look at Peter’s story while applying the four basic spiritual laws. Peter dishonored his mother and father by judging them. According to the law, life will not go well for Peter in the area in which he dishonored his parents. He judged them for being cruel to him. In his adult life, Peter’s arrogance, bordered with cruelty, made him openly hostile towards his fellow students and coworkers. His relationship with his parents was scarred with bitterness and resentment. The relationships with his peers also bore the same hallmark. 

Peter responded to his parents’ mistreatment with bitterness. It took deep root in his heart and sprang the seed of anger and arrogance. Peter’s reaction to his parents’ sin was, likewise, sinful. The law is impersonal, and its just retributions reach Peter even though he was an innocent victim of circumstance. It was not the emotional pain caused by his parents that made him sin; it was his embittered reaction towards them that accused him of wrongdoing. The sin of bitterness enslaved Peter. 

To break from the enslaving power of sin, Peter had to satisfy the just retribution of the law by confessing his wrongful behavior and forgiving those who sinned against him. Peter had to forgive his parents to receive healing from anger and arrogance. Repentance from the sin of bitterness and forgiveness towards those who sinned against him freed Peter from the emotional pain he suffered. By extending forgiveness to his offenders, Peter was on the road to healing from his miserable condition of heart; his misery soon turned to serene peace.

I Choose to Forgive Life of Hate and Misery vs. Life of Freedom

Question: What is your strategy to win this battle? Do you find similarities between Peter’s story (p. 130) and your story? Write your won prayer for liberation from unforgiveness. 

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