“Now I say to you that you are Peter (which means ‘rock’), and upon this rock I will build my church, and all the powers of hell will not conquer it.”

If you find yourself asking someone who you work with or works for you, the question, “What’s new with you?” then you might want to think twice about it.  With today’s technology and ability to stay in touch with one another, it really shouldn’t be a question to be asked.  An obvious reason would be that surveys keep coming out that show that in the top three reasons that people are changing jobs (yes, they are resigning but also taking new jobs so that the Great Resignation is turning more into the Great Shuffle) is that they feel not recognized and/or disrespected.  An easy way to show disrespect is not spending enough time with others to know how they are doing, what’s the latest with them and be in touch with how they are feeling about work, life, etc.  It’s not hard, we just need to commit ourselves to it.

Jesus models for us how He cares so much about where we are at any point in time and to be sure that we know He loves us and wants the best for us.  There isn’t a better example than when Peter denies Jesus before His crucifixion and from there, Peter could have spent the rest of his life living in a state of failure.  But, Jesus didn’t let that happen.  He returned to Peter and built him back up, restoring him for the amazing things he would do in the future.  That is how God is with us, there isn’t anything new about us with Him, it’s all right there with Him wanting to know us and us Him without every skipping a beat.

Reference: Matthew 16:18 (New Living Translation)