And a voice came to him, "Rise, Peter; kill and eat." But Peter said, "Not so, Lord! For I have never eaten anything common or unclean." And a voice spoke to him again the second time, "What God has cleansed you must not call common." This was done three times. And the object was taken up into heaven again. Acts 10:13-16

How many times does God have to say something before we get it?

Though once should be sufficient, the truth is, we are not only slow learners at times, we can also be rather stubborn. Peter was so glued to his convictions about touching what is ceremonially unclean, he not only opposed the Lord, he had to be corrected three times before his got it.

Let us not be too hard on Peter. He was no different from us in his outspoken, impetuous, and slow-to-learn ways. But while going easy on Peter, we may all need to be a bit harder on ourselves. Let us embrace (rather than object to) what God says. Let us be satisfied that if the Lord has spoken, as He most certainly has in His Word, He doesn’t need to repeat Himself if we will submit to His Word the first time.

Bonus Thought: Because we are both slow and stubborn, how wonderful it is that God is so graciously patient with us!