Then He began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, be killed, and rise after three days. He was openly talking about this. So Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him.

But turning around and looking at His disciples, He rebuked Peter and said, “Get behind Me, Satan, because you’re not thinking about God’s concerns, but man’s!” {Mark 8:31-33}

It made no sense to Peter. He couldn’t comprehend the Messiah finally coming, and then talking about suffering and dying. Surely He was wrong.

So Peter rebuked the plans of God because they made no sense to him. He didn’t have the full picture. Couldn’t see what God was really doing.

We aren’t much different.

We think we know how God works. What He will and will not do. Often, we discount any kind of suffering in our lives as being part of His plan. We can’t fathom that He would ask hard, suffering, dying things of us. We think that surely our struggle is not of God. These hardships cannot be part of His plan. In fact, if we are unhappy at all, we assume it is not what God wants for us.

So we rebuke the very thing meant to bring Him glory.

We must stop evaluating God’s plans and His ways based on what makes sense to us, on what does and does not offend us. Jesus’ death put the love of God on display. Can we be willing to consider that what we are enduring may be what will bring Him glory, that perhaps He is meant to be seen through our suffering? We cannot dismiss it just because it offends us. Granted, not every suffering or injustice is God’s desire for us, but we must be willing to seek wisdom and understanding before we rebuke it. We have to be willing to think higher than ourselves.

Today, let us not have in mind the things of man, but the things of God.