Peter, who had proudly boasted of his unfailing loyalty to Jesus (Luke 22:33), was now betraying Him (Luke 22:34).  After three years of the Master's teaching, seeing many miracles and even having had a personal revelation of the true identity of his Lord (Matthew 16:13-17), none of that seemed to matter anymore.  The sordid betrayal by Judas (Luke 22:47-48), and the clumsy arrest of Jesus had left the disciples without their leader and protector.  

Peter might have thought he could be the hero who would rescue the Lord and it seems that he was the only one willing to get close enough to the courthouse – all the others ran away (Mark 14:50).  But Peter was not there as a man of faith.  He could not be, because He had failed to pray (Luke 22:45-46).  He was not serving Jesus because he had failed to be obedient (Matthew 26:40-41).  He was not there as a supporter of Jesus because he denied Him.  So, why was he there?  He was a short-sighted man whose confidence was in His flesh but who failed to see the trap into which he was falling.  

Awakening to the possibility that he could be next to be arrested, fear had already gripped his heart.  The motive for his actions was self-survival – despite Jesus saying that those who want to save their lives must be willing to lose their life (Luke 9:24).  The trigger for his astonishing lies, denial and effective betrayal of Jesus were the simple observations of a servant girl.  Normally he would never have taken such a person seriously.  But when she spoke the truth and identified him as one of the disciples, he showed that his loyalty was to himself, as he denied any relationship with Jesus at all.
 
While we may consider Peter's behaviour as despicable, have we never done the same?  Fear can be a proper emotion which alerts us to physical danger and the need to take action before things get out of our control.  But the devil can so easily stir us to fear through his lies, convincing us that matters are also getting out of God's control and therefore we must do something to protect ourselves because He won't.  Under those circumstances, once we have swallowed Satan's deceit, we are capable of doing anything.  Often we revert to old patterns of behaviour we thought had long gone.  But in doing so, we betray the Lord, His love, His care and provision; and we expose ourselves to the isolation of life without Him.  Not a good place to be!  So let us be alert to what is happening … when we get frightened, we are starting to believe that God is not in control, and we effectively deny that He is Lord of everything.  Today, take your fears to Him; confess your betrayal, repent and come to Him for forgiveness and restoration.  Peter did, you can too (John 21:15-19)!