Who do they think we are?

What if we asked our family and friends to tell us what the people around us think of us? We might be surprised at what they say. The thing that may surprise us the most is the wide range of characteristics they used to explain how they think of us - much of which we won't agree with. What some people think of us may be far different from how we think of ourselves. Those people may think that way not because of who we are or what we have done, but because of what their expectations of us are and if we measure up to those expectations or not.

We would hope that everyone who tells us what they think of us would do so based on who they think we actually are and not based on some pre-conceived notion of what they may want us to be. But, we know that happens anyway because we do it to other people from time to time.

Spiritually speaking, how can that erroneous way of thinking about Jesus damage our efforts to do God's will? Read Mark 8:27-38 to find out how Jesus dealt with that problem.