Jesus came to earth in order to offer His life on the cross for us. During His earthly ministry, He told His disciples beforehand that this would happen: “And He began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again” (Mark 8:31).
When Peter heard this, he “took [Jesus] aside and began to rebuke Him” (Mark 8:32). It may seem incredible to us that one of the disciples would dare to rebuke Jesus; however, Peter surely did so with the best of intentions – he did not want to see Jesus suffer and die as He said. Yet Jesus turned around and rebuked Peter because he was “not setting [his] mind on God’s interests, but man’s” (Mark 6:33).
From Peter’s perspective at the time, it probably did not make sense why Jesus would have to die. Yet this was God’s plan (cf. Acts 2:23). He needed to accept this even if it was not his will and even if it did not make sense to him at that time. He simply needed to trust that God’s will was best and follow Him accordingly. The same is true for us today. We need to have faith in God, trust His word, and follow His teachings.
So set your mind on God’s interests. Even if we do not understand why something must happen a certain way, we need to trust that God’s way is best. Let us walk by faith and focus on following the will of God.