🤔 Why Do We Hide Our Faith? | Matthew 26 Devotional (7-Step QT)
7-Step QT Notes
1. 🙏 Quiet Time
Pause.
Take a deep breath.
Ask God to reveal where fear may be shaping your words, your choices, and your witness.
2. 📅 March 31, 2026
Today’s passage reminds us:
Fear may lead us to deny Jesus, but truth leads us back to repentance.
3. ✝️ Matthew 26:69-75
Peter denied Jesus three times before others, each time with increasing intensity and even with an oath. When the rooster crowed, he remembered Jesus’ prediction that he would deny Him three times before the rooster crowed. Realizing what he had done, Peter went out and wept bitterly.
4. 📖 Key Verse
And again he denied it with an oath: “I do not know the man.” (v. 72)
5. 📝 Reflection
When I was young, I once got caught lying and was severely scolded by my father. At that time, I had fully intended to lie, yet my father seemed to recognize almost immediately that I was not telling the truth. After many years had passed, I once reflected carefully on why I had been exposed so quickly. Looking back, I realized that as I kept adding lies to cover up the first one, I had fallen into contradiction without even knowing it. In the end, the lie did not conceal itself; rather, it exposed itself even more clearly.
Peter’s denial is one of the most well-known scenes in Scripture. In particular, the betrayal of Peter, the leading disciple of Jesus, has drawn the attention of many people and is widely known even among unbelievers. Peter followed Jesus as far as the high priest’s house, but when people recognized him, he strongly denied that he even knew Jesus.
Among Peter’s three denials, the second denial is especially striking. First, Peter denies with an oath. The Greek word used for “oath” is a relatively rare term, appearing only about ten times in the entire New Testament. Yet this word is used in connection with God’s holy covenant of salvation. Peter used even that solemn word while insisting that he did not know Jesus. Second, Peter says, “I do not know the man.” Here, “the man” is a Greek expression referring to a man in a general sense. Before those who knew both Jesus and Peter, Peter spoke of Jesus as though He were merely some stranger—“that man”—and denied Him strongly.
When we reflect on these two expressions together, Peter’s denial appears not as a simple denial but as a picture of deepening self-contradiction. It is as if he were saying, “I am lying when I say I do not know Jesus. And in order to keep this lie from being discovered, I am now telling an even greater lie. Please pretend not to notice.”
Beloved saints, it is not entirely clear why Peter said that he did not know Jesus. Most likely, it was because of fear. Yet this scene is also the fulfillment of the very prophecy Jesus had already spoken. If God’s word is fulfilled even despite Peter’s lie, shall we still continue to cling to falsehood? Certainly not. Within the will of God—which will surely come to pass—we must decide today whether we will choose falsehood and weep bitterly, or choose truth and rejoice.
6. 💬 What does this passage speak to you today?
- When am I most tempted to hide that I belong to Jesus?
- Where am I choosing approval from people over faithfulness to Christ?
- Are there small compromises in my life that are slowly leading me away from truth?
- How is Jesus calling me to repent and return to Him today?
7. 🙏 Prayer
Lord, You know how easily fear can shape my words and actions.
Forgive me for the times I have hidden my faith, compromised the truth, or acted as if I did not know You.
Give me courage to stand with Jesus, even when it feels uncomfortable.
Lead me into honesty, repentance, and deeper faithfulness today.
Amen.
Scriptures
📖 (Matthew 26:69-75, ESV).
69 Now Peter was sitting outside in the courtyard. And a servant girl came up to him and said, “You also were with Jesus the Galilean.” 70 But he denied it before them all, saying, “I do not know what you mean.” 71 And when he went out to the entrance, another servant girl saw him, and she said to the bystanders, “This man was with Jesus of Nazareth.” 72 And again he denied it with an oath: “I do not know the man.” 73 After a little while the bystanders came up and said to Peter, “Certainly you too are one of them, for your accent betrays you.” 74 Then he began to invoke a curse on himself and to swear, “I do not know the man.” And immediately the rooster crowed. 75 And Peter remembered the saying of Jesus, “Before the rooster crows, you will deny me three times.” And he went out and wept bitterly.
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