PETER

Among the apostles, the one absolutely stunning success was Judas, and the one thoroughly groveling failure was Peter. Judas was a success in the ways that most impress us: he was successful both financially and politically. He cleverly arranged to control the money of the apostolic band; he skillfully manipulated the political forces of the day to accomplish his goal. And Peter was a failure in ways that we most dread: he was impotent in a crisis and socially inept. At the arrest of Jesus he collapsed, a hapless, blustering coward; in the most critical situations of his life with Jesus, the confession on the road to Caesarea Philippi and the vision on the Mount of transfiguration, he said the most embarrassingly inappropriate things. He was not the companion we would want with us in time of danger, and he was not the kind of person we would feel comfortable with at a social occasion. Time, of course, has reversed our judgments on the two men. Judas is now a byword for betrayal, and Peter is one of the most honored names in the church and in the world. Judas is a villain; Peter is a saint. Yet the world continues to chase after the successes of Judas, financial wealth and political power, and to defend itself against the failures of Peter, impotence and ineptness.

Eugene Petersen quoted in: Tim Kimmel, Little House on the Freeway, pp. 191-192.

Called to be a disciple (Jn. 1:40)

Called to be a constant companion (Mt 4:19, Mk. 1:17, Lk 5:10)

Called to be an apostle (Mt. 10:2, Mk 3:14, 16, Lk. 6:13-14)

At one time Peter had wayward feet, but Andrew brought him to Jesus. And then one night Peter had some wet feet because he was walking on the water. Then he had washed feet when Jesus knelt before him and washed his feet (John 13). He had wandering feet when he denied the Lord. Here he had willing feet. "How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace" (Rom 10:15). What kind of feet do you have? 

W. Wiersbe, Something Happens When Churches Pray, p.104.