Dave's Diary

Daily Readings: Luke 22 and Psalm 38

³¹ ‘Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift all of you as wheat. ³² But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers.’

Satan came to Jesus in the wilderness (all the way back in Luke 4), seeking to trip Him up and defeat His obedience to God. But through the Holy Spirit’s power, the experience served only to strengthen Jesus’ resolve and firm up His commitment to the path the Father had called Him to walk. Luke understood that God the Father had mysteriously initiated and allowed this time of testing in Jesus’ life to accomplish exactly that outcome, so he wrote: “Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, left the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, ² where for forty days he was tempted by the devil.“

Now, the moment had come for the disciples to take over Jesus’ mission. Jesus’ part was nearly complete. His race was nearly run. The Cross was just one night away. Jesus foresaw that the disciples would need the same sort of testing of their resolve if they were to fulfil the mission. His warning seemed devastating to Simon, but it was actually a word of great hope and encouragement. Yes, Simon would be tested. Yes, he would seem to have failed the test (Luke 22:54-63). But the true test was how he would come back from that seeming failure. And for this, Jesus told Simon: “I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers.“

Simon’s three denials were failures, for sure, but they were not ultimate. Jesus’ faith had stood firm through His three temptations in the wilderness. Simon’s faith faltered and fear overcame him three times that night in the courtyard. But his faith did not die. It had been overpowered in the moment, but it came back stronger than ever before. Ultimately, his faith and his resolve were strengthened through that night of testing. Simon became more fully Peter, a “rock”, a means by whom Jesus would build His Church, the one who would gather the other scattered disciples and lead their mission, and the one who would bravely face his own execution decades later. His faith may have faltered … but it did not fail.

Life application: Don’t allow those moments when your faith falters to define you. Always turn back to Jesus. Your choice to do so will open you up to the Holy Spirit’s restoring power and your faith will come back stronger than ever before.