Rooster’s Crow Repentance

Rooster’s Crow Repentance

How can we recover when we have failed God so terribly?  

In Mark 14:54ff, we have the story of Peter outside in the courtyard standing around a fire warming himself while Jesus is inside being blindfolded, spat on, and beaten. The others around the fire, with Peter, identify him three different times as being one of Jesus’ disciples, and three different times Peter denies it, ultimately to the point of cursing. And the rooster crowed.  He had completely failed the Lord. He had broken every commitment he had made to Him (His commitment to total dedication), even to dying, if necessary. Peter was as far from the Lord as he had ever been since coming to know Him as His Savior. At this point, Luke 22:61-62 tells us, “The Lord turned and looked straight at Peter. Then Peter remembered the word the Lord had spoken to him: ‘Before the rooster crows today, you will disown me three times.’ And he went outside and wept bitterly.” 

Robert Morgan, Pastor, Counselor, and Author, wrote, “When the eyes of Jesus scorch a man, when he hears the rooster crow and weeps bitterly, determined to change, he is then, at last, beyond regret, beyond remorse, to a level of sorrow called repentance.”  

Beloved, have you denied Jesus, maybe not in word, but maybe in how you live? Does the world recognize you as a Christian, or are you just another person in the world? Maybe you have failed the Lord terribly in other ways. No matter what you have done, just as the Lord wasn’t through with Peter, He's not through with you. While your faults and failures are damning, when you kneel before the risen Christ, confessing your sins, His blood thoroughly cleanses you. Indeed, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” 1 John 1:9. Beloved, if you will survive failure, you must hear the rooster crow! 

This is Laine Wilder for Carry the Light Ministries, bringing you Insights From an Elder.

by Laine Wilder

author of “Insights From an Elder” for

Carry the Light Ministries