August 19th, 25: Loved and Forgiven: Peter’s Restoration and God’s Unconditional Love

Welcome to the Daily Radio Bible! In today’s episode, host Hunter guides us through August 19th’s scripture readings, taking us on a journey from Jeremiah chapters 45 and 47, to Psalm 105, and ending with John 21. Hunter reflects on powerful themes of God’s unwavering love and faithfulness—even in the face of failure, brokenness, and exile. Through the story of Peter’s restoration by Jesus, we’re invited to see ourselves as loved, forgiven, and renewed, no matter the weight of our past mistakes. Along the way, Hunter encourages us to let God’s love reshape our lives so we can share that same hope with others. The episode concludes with heartfelt prayers and gratitude for this global community of listeners. So, wherever you are, settle in as we warm our hearts together by the fires of God’s love, and remember: you are deeply loved.

TODAY'S DEVOTION:

Love is rooted in God. He is love’s origin and source. That is who he is. God is love. His love is not conditioned on our response, our attitudes, our prayers, or our work for him. It simply is, because that is who God is.

The rock that Peter is and will become is quarried from the rock that is Christ himself. He’s a chip off the old block. Peter’s very being is rooted in God. Something fundamental has shifted. Peter has been drawn into the life of Christ. This is, to use a big word, an ontological reality that Peter must begin to grapple with, and must allow to transform his entire being.

Peter no doubt struggled with the failure that was his denial of Christ. He no doubt struggled to see himself in any other way than as weak, a fraud, a failure. I’m sure there was a mountain of self-loathing in the wake of his denial. So Jesus asks Peter three times this fundamental question: Do you love me? Jesus is chipping away at all the ways we see ourselves and frame our lives, that stand in the way of us fully participating in what really is, and who we really are.

Peter has to know that he himself is loved, forgiven, that he is in Christ. Christ sees something in Peter that Peter is struggling to see himself: God’s love, God’s love for him. And Peter needs to see in others what God has already seen in him. Those sheep, Peter, they’re like you. They have failed. They are hiding. They are afraid. They are ashamed. But the truth is, like you, they are already forgiven. The truth is that they are new. The truth is that they are loved.

Now go tell them. Feed them with this gospel.

Now, enough about Peter. Let’s talk about you. Jesus sees something in you. And you, like Peter, might be struggling to see it.

Maybe Jesus is chipping away at all the many ways that your failures have framed your life. Well, the truth is that your real life is hidden with God in Christ. And the more that you begin to awaken to that reality and God’s love for you, the more you will be able to offer that love to God’s sheep—to all the people you see today, all the people living under the crushing weight of their failures and shame.

Let God chip away at those things that keep you from seeing what God really sees in you: that you are already forgiven, that you are already loved, that you are already in Christ. Now offer this message to everyone in your world. Feed his sheep.

That’s a prayer that I have for my own soul. That’s the prayer that I have for my family, for my wife and my daughters and my son. And that’s a prayer that I have for you. May it be so.