AUG 25

Luke 22:31-32
Memorise 1 John 5:4
“But I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not.”

The Lord knew that Satan’s intent was to try to destroy Peter, that he may sift him “as wheat”. This describes the agricultural process in that time of how the farmer would thresh the harvested wheat by beating it with a flail, and then he would sift or winnow it by separating the chaff (the useless husk) from the actual grain. What Satan intended to do was thus to put Peter and the disciples through tough times, in the hope that they would be like the useless husk that is blown away by the storm of affliction. Jesus was thus was very concerned about Peter’s weak faith, seeing through his cocksure attitude. Jesus prayed for Peter’s faith that it would not fail, that Peter would not depart from the faith. Note that Jesus had prayed this prayer for Peter’s faith even before Peter’s boast that he would never deny the Lord. God answered the prayer of Jesus: although Peter subsequently fell by denying the Lord thrice, his faith did not fail. Unlike Judas Iscariot who after betraying Christ believed no hope was left for him and thus committed suicide, the fallen Peter was filled with remorse but never lost all hope in Christ. Peter would have remembered the second part of Luke 22:32 “But I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not: and when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren” and clung on to this hope that Jesus would subsequently restore Peter, which Jesus did after His resurrection.

I believe all of us Christians have interceded in prayer for others before, but we tend to pray more for the specific physical needs of others which they have requested prayer for, such as exams, health, difficult projects, time management etc. We seldom pray for the faith of others, unless they specifically request for that. We forget that even though a prayer list may, for example, state a certain person’s prayer request for recovery from a certain illness, we should also pray for this person’s faith, that through the whole difficult period of his sickness, he would learn to trust in the Lord and grow in his faith. For what glory to God does it bring if God heals this person but all can see this person never really trusted God to heal him? Indeed God is conversely glorified in many cases of Christians being struck down by terminal diseases but refusing to lose faith in Christ, cheerfully sharing the gospel from the hospital bed, and being faithful unto death. For Christians, victory is thus being faithful to Christ, even when our health or comforts are threatened. We should therefore pray for other Christians that their faith may not fail, no matter how bad the situation is, but instead thrive and bear a testimony for the Lord!

Thought: Faith is the victory that overcomes the world.
Prayer: May I pray regularly for the faith of others.