Day 1: Your Regret and His Grace
John 21:9 When they got out on land, they saw a charcoal fire there, with fish lying on it, and bread.
Just like me, I bet there’s a moment in your life that you regret. Even if it happened years ago, you still carry it around with you. Maybe you hoped it would fade, but it doesn’t fade, does it? It sits there in the back of your mind, waiting to ambush you when you’re tired or alone or honest with yourself.
Peter had a moment like that– it was at a charcoal fire. He could remember the smell and the glow of it. It was on a cold night when he assured the folks around him, “I don’t know Him.” That was the worst night of Peter’s life.
So what does Jesus do when He sees Peter again? He builds another charcoal fire.
Stop and let that land. Jesus could have met Peter anywhere. He could have chosen a different setting, a different smell, a different scene. But He didn’t. He built the very fire that would take Peter back to the place he failed.
Why?
Because Jesus doesn’t pretend your worst moment didn’t happen. He doesn’t sweep it under a rug and ask you to forget it. Instead, He acknowledges your sin and failure, and He covers it with His grace.
What regret are you carrying around? Jesus isn’t waiting for you to get over it before He heals you. He’s already here, with grace ready for you.
Your worst moment is not where Jesus leaves you– it’s where He finds you!
Prayer: Father God, You know every regret that I have. Please help me to stop carrying this around and give it to You. Thank You for Your grace! In Jesus’ name, amen.
Day 2: The Question Behind The Question
John 21:15 When they had eaten breakfast, Jesus asked Simon Peter, “Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?” “Yes, Lord,” he said to him, “you know that I love you.” “Feed my lambs,” he told him.
If you look at Peter’s story, you see something awesome: Three denials and three questions– one for each.
If you’ve read this passage before, you know Jesus asks Peter the same thing three times. “Do you love me?” Peter, by the third round, is grieved. The repetition stings. But the repetition is the point.
Jesus is not interrogating Peter. Instead, He’s healing him.
Every time Peter denied Jesus by that first charcoal fire, a wound opened. And now, by this second charcoal fire, Jesus is closing each one, stitch by stitch, question by question. He matches the failure point for point in order to restore.
Have you ever noticed how God works on you? He doesn’t usually fix everything in one sweeping moment (though we’d prefer that!). He works on the same wound over and over. The same pride or the same fear or the same tendency to run when things get hard. And sometimes you wonder, “Why does He keep bringing this up? Haven’t I dealt with this enough?”
Because He’s not done healing it.
Think about what Jesus could have said to Peter. “We don’t need to talk about that night.” Or worse, “I’ll forgive you, but I can’t trust you again.” Instead, He gives Peter a job. “Feed my lambs.” “Shepherd my sheep.” “Feed my sheep.” It’s His grace on display!
If God keeps returning to a wound in your life, it’s not because He’s keeping score. It’s because His grace is greater than the sin, and He’s still working to heal what shame keeps trying to bury.
You are not too far gone. You are being made whole.
Prayer: Father, thank You for Your grace. Help me to accept it in every part of my life today. Amen.
Day 3: He Knows Your Name
John 21:17 He asked him the third time, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” Peter was grieved that he asked him the third time, “Do you love me?” He said, “Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.” “Feed my sheep,” Jesus said.
Did you catch what Jesus calls Peter? Not Peter or Cephas or “the rock”– He calls him Simon. That’s the name his family used, the one he had before he ever followed Jesus, preached a sermon, or denied his Lord.
Jesus goes back to the beginning.
He’s not addressing the apostle or the failure; He’s addressing the man.
Maybe you’ve forgotten you have a name. You’ve been calling yourself by your worst moment for so long that the label has replaced the person. It could be the divorce, the addiction, or the mistake. It’s the thing nobody at church knows about. You walk around carrying that label like it’s stitched into your skin.
But Jesus isn’t calling you by that label. He’s calling you by your name.
Some of us have built a picture of God that looks like a manager– arms crossed, disappointed, watching from a distance with a clipboard, and ready to dock points. We pray and feel like we’re shouting into an empty room. We come to church and feel like outsiders looking in.
Strip that filter off Jesus and throw it out.
The Jesus of John 21 cooks breakfast for the man who betrayed Him. He doesn’t yell from across the shore. Instead, He waits until Peter is close enough to look in the eye and He uses his name.
That’s not a distant manager but a Savior who knows you– personally.
You are not a number on a spreadsheet to God. You are a son or daughter He died to bring home!
Prayer: Holy Father, thank You for knowing, loving, and calling me. Help me to live like Your child today. In the name of Jesus, amen.
Day 4: Still On The Roster
John 21:18-19 “Truly I tell you, when you were younger, you would tie your belt and walk wherever you wanted. But when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands and someone else will tie you and carry you where you don’t want to go.” He said this to indicate by what kind of death Peter would glorify God. After saying this, he told him, “Follow me.”
Jesus restores Peter and then tells him exactly how he will die. That’s a lot to take in over breakfast, isn’t it?
But notice what Jesus doesn’t say. He does not say, “Peter, you blew it, so I’m going to scale back the plan I had for you.” Jesus doesn’t downgrade Peter or bench him. Rather, He gives him a future that will glorify God all the way to the last breath.
There is no Plan B with Jesus.
A lot of us live like there is. We carry a quiet, persistent suspicion that somewhere along the way we forfeited the good version of our life. Now we are working with leftovers. God is just making the best of a bad situation. Now we are the spiritual equivalent of clearance rack merchandise.
That is not how Jesus works.
He looked at the man who denied Him three times and said, “Follow me.” Same calling, purpose, and glory. The man who wept bitterly in the courtyard would preach the sermon at Pentecost where three thousand came to faith. The guy who said “I don’t know Him” would write Scripture you and I still read.
What about you? Maybe you think you aged out of usefulness or your guilt has disqualified you or the window has closed.
But the window has not closed. Jesus is still saying, “Follow me.” Your story is not finished, because His purpose for you is not finished.
Get up off the bench– He’s still calling.
Prayer: Father, I’ve sometimes believed that You are done with me, but I know You aren’t. Thank You for still using me. Amen.
Day 5: Where Sin Multiplies, Grace Multiplies More
Romans 5:20 The law came along to multiply the trespass. But where sin multiplied, grace multiplied even more.
Let that verse sit on you for a minute. Where sin multiplied, grace multiplied even more. It’s not that grace is matched or equaled– it’s multiplied even more.
We tend to do math with God’s grace. We add up our sins on one side of the page and try to figure out if there’s enough grace on the other side to cover them. We picture grace as a bucket with a fixed amount inside, and we worry that we have already used too much of it. Surely there’s a limit. At some point Jesus must say, “That’s enough. I’ve poured out all I’m willing to pour out for that one.”
Paul says no, the math doesn’t work like that. The more sin shows up, the more grace shows up to cover it. Always more grace– always more!
This isn’t permission to keep sinning. Paul wrestles with that very question in the next chapter. This is the announcement that you cannot out-sin the grace of God. The denier can be restored, the persecutor can become an apostle, and the prodigal can come home and find a feast already prepared.
What have you been carrying? A pattern you keep falling into, a relationship you keep wrecking, a temptation you keep losing to, or a sin you’ve confessed a thousand times and still find yourself confessing today.
You haven’t run out of grace. There is more of it on the other side of your sin than you can imagine.
That is who God is. That is what the Gospel says. And that is why Jesus is not done with you.
Stop counting and start trusting.
Prayer: Holy Father, let me just enjoy Your grace today instead of doing that math. Thank you for it! In Jesus’s name, amen.
Day 6: The Long Walk Back
John 21:7 The disciple, the one Jesus loved, said to Peter, “It is the Lord!” When Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he tied his outer clothing around him (for he had stripped) and plunged into the sea.
Picture the scene: Peter is in a boat, soaking wet from a long night of catching nothing, and someone says the words that change everything. “It is the Lord.” Peter doesn’t wait for the boat to row in. He throws his clothes on and dives into the water.
Why?
This is the same Peter who, one of the last times he saw Jesus face to face, denied Him three times and ran into the night. You would think Peter would be the last man in the boat or for him to hide behind the nets and let someone else greet Jesus first. Instead, he jumps overboard and swims for shore.
That’s what grace does– it pulls you toward the very Person you thought you couldn’t face.
There’s a strange thing about shame: it tells you the answer to your failure is distance. Stay away, keep your head down, don’t draw attention, wait until you’ve cleaned yourself up, and then maybe, eventually, you can come back. But that voice is a liar.
Peter heard the truth. The Lord is on the shore. And the Lord on the shore is not the Lord who is angry with him; it is the Lord who came looking for him.
What about you? You have been swimming in the opposite direction for too long, haven’t you? You know the place where Jesus is, and you know He’s calling, but the weight of what you’ve done feels too heavy to face Him.
Jump in the water because He’s already cooking breakfast.
Prayer: Heavenly Father, I don’t want to stay away from You because of my shame. So please take it away from me and let me enjoy Your presence today. Amen.
Day 7: More Than These
John 21:15 When they had eaten breakfast, Jesus asked Simon Peter, “Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?” “Yes, Lord,” he said to him, “you know that I love you.” “Feed my lambs,” he told him.
“Do you love me more than these?” It’s a strange question, isn’t it? More than what? More than the other disciples standing nearby? Or more than the boats and nets that have been Peter’s life since he was a boy? Or more than the comfortable, predictable existence he could go back to if he wanted?
Jesus is asking Peter the question that gets under all the other questions.
Because here’s the truth about why we deny Jesus. We don’t usually deny Him because we hate Him, but because something else has crowded in and started competing for the throne of our heart. It could be a relationship, a reputation, a career, or a version of our life we are unwilling to let go of. And when the pressure rises, we choose the thing we love more.
What are your “these”?
The things you wrap your identity around or that you reach for when life feels uncertain. Just like Peter, we all have them.
Jesus asks one question: “Do you love me?” Because love is what He’s after. Love is what calls Peter back from the shore. It’s what fuels the rest of his life.
Jesus is not done with you, but He is asking you the same question He asked Peter. He knows you have been choosing “these” for too long, and He wants you to come home.
What is He worth to you today?
Prayer: Father, search my heart. Please show me the things I have loved more than You. Thank You for forgiving me and loving me. In Jesus’s name, amen.