Seeing Potential In Others

And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.    —Matthew 16:18

During a recent Father’s Day message at Oakland, the preacher asked the question, “As a child, who did your parents or family say you were?” We were challenged to fill in the blank, “I was the ____ child.” Although I have a pretty good self-image today, the message really hit home for me in this point. You see, I could have filled in the blank, “I was the fat child.” “I was the middle child.” Or, “I was the blamed for everything child.”

The speaker went on to say, “You are not who your parents and family say you are; in God’s eyes, you are special, chosen, capable, and God’s own child full of potential.” Many of us today still live with the labels and judgments of others rather than our blessed potential in Christ.

The Apostle Simon was renamed “Peter” by Jesus meaning bedrock. Jesus said, “On this rock, I will build my church” (16:18). Jesus knew everything God planned to do in and through Peter’s life. Jesus also knew all Peter’s weaknesses and every failure that was ahead. Jesus named Peter based on his current profession and future potential. Only if we would be so positive and supportive of ourselves and others.

If Peter would have been listening with me to the Father’s Day sermon, he might have filled in his blank, “Peter is the ___ child” with “denier, impulsive, bold, unbelieving, critical, or violent.” Jesus did not judge Peter based upon his weaknesses but on his potential as a child of God transformed by the Holy Spirit.

Jesus came as a nobody, was born in a barn, and lived His early life as a country bumpkin in obscurity. When selecting the Disciples, He called fisherman, revolutionaries, tax collectors, and uneducated men. Jesus spent time with the poor not because He pitied them but because He saw their potential. Paul, also, describes this kingdom attitude and discernment, “So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view” (2 Corinthians 5:16).

According to the Lord’s Prayer, our forgiveness is partially based upon how we forgive others (Matthew 6:12). Jesus taught us, “For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you” (Matthew 7:2). Judging is the negative side of seeing others only in their brokenness and human weakness. Seeing the potential in others is the positive side of living, thinking, and seeing with the eyes of Jesus Christ.

When is the last time you based your opinion of someone according to their potential rather than on their mistakes and failures? Are you living and behaving today based on what people said or are saying about you or based upon who you are and who you can be in Christ?

In Christ, all the promises of God are ours. We can do and be anything God calls us to. The labels of our past do not define us. We are heirs of God and joint-heirs with Jesus Christ. (Romans 8:17). God sees and knows our great potential in Jesus. Let us walk and see others in light of that potential.