Caught, with your hand in the cookie jar?

In the story of the denial of Peter, Peter in a sense gets caught with his hand in the cookie jar. He said that he would never deny Jesus, Jesus said he would and I’d go with Jesus. When in fact it did happen and Peter denied Jesus not once, not twice but three times. The important part of this is not the fact the Peter was wrong and Jesus was right the thing we need to notice is in verse 75 and that was Peter’s response. He went away weeping bitterly, this is a sign of repentance. The word bitterly means to me that he wasn’t just sorry he did this but he was truly upset, shaken, mortified by what he had done. This is repentance. Now the question becomes what happens when you get caught with your hand in the cookie jar? (Which of course I mean sin) Do you deny it? Are you sorry that you got caught? Or once you realize that you have sinned does it bother you? Do you hate what you have done? If not then be careful because many people ask for forgiveness of their sins but much fewer repent of them and Jesus requires both.

Matthew 26

⁷³ A little later some of the other bystanders came over to Peter and said, “You must be one of them; we can tell by your Galilean accent.”

⁷⁴ Peter swore, “A curse on me if I’m lying—I don’t know the man!” And immediately the rooster crowed.

⁷⁵ Suddenly, Jesus’ words flashed through Peter’s mind: “Before the rooster crows, you will deny three times that you even know me.” And he went away, weeping bitterly.