So you do agree that Peter was certainly not looking forward to the Cross right?
And when the cross was finally going to happen, he was so disillusioned that he renounced knowing Christ 3 times.
Does that strike you as someone looking forward to the cross?
Peter is a great lesson in knowing the will of God and serving God by the effort of the flesh or the power of the Spirit. I actually love Peter for the great lessons I have learned about faith.
Know this: it was God's will that Peter would die for the sake of Jesus Christ. This is revealed after Christ's resurrection when he told it to him. Peter was going to die for the name of the Lord as many others had done before him [see Hebrews 11].
Peter is given to us as an example that we cannot serve God by the will of the flesh, only by the Holy Ghost.
I may say to God, "I will..."
But it is far better to hear God say, "You will..."
I think a lot of our faith, whether believing for healing, provision, deliverance, or many other needs fails because it is merely human effort and not God inspired. Human effort cannot win the battle.
Yet Peter's apparent failure was all in the permissible will of God as Luke reveals in Jesus' discourse with him, "Satan has desired to have you but I have prayed for you that your strength fail not."
Peter felt an utter failure but Jesus assured him he had not. What a wonderful restoration it was! Allow yourself to float in the beauty of its emotion.
In essence Jesus said to him, "You will not fail me Peter, your will die with me, and rise again; but first things first."
Jas 1:5 If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.
Wait on the Lord and He will renew your strength. Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. So many encouragements to let God's will be done. Amen.
This is the gospel of reconciliation. We cannot do it, but he can and will.