One of my favorite Bible verses regarding our faith consists of a prayer of the Lord Jesus Himself. In Luke chapter 22, Jesus and His disciples are around the Last Supper table and Jesus addresses the apostle Peter:
“Simon, Simon! Indeed, Satan has asked for you, that he may sift you as wheat. But I have prayed for you, that your faith should not fail;”
There are a few things to notice here. First, Jesus addresses Peter with his ‘pre-Christian’ name, Simon, which likely is a clue that Peter will deny Christ three times before the next day. Second, Jesus was aware of the battle Satan was waging for the souls of all of Christ’s apostles, especially Peter, and He prayed for Peter, that Peter’s faith would not fail.
How powerful and moving is it to remember that Jesus prays for us, His people, protecting us from Satan. It seems that Jesus did not consider Peter’s denials as a failure of faith, because He knew that Peter would return to Him. In our Christian walk, we may fall short, but we must never fail. Most likely, we can all think of many times that our souls would have perished, if not for Jesus’ prayers that protected us and led us to repent and turn back to Him.
On our recent trip to Japan, I struck up a conversation with a delightful English-speaking woman who had spent a couple of years in the United States. She relayed to me that she had lived in the “Bible Belt” during that time, joined a Bible study and was even baptized into the Christian faith. However, on her move back to Japan, the pressure from family and friends to return to her roots and abandon her new-found faith was great and over time she did just that. And yet, I sensed a gentleness and caring about this woman that made me think the Holy Spirit was still at work in her heart. I found myself praying for her – that her faith would not fail.
Christ’s death on the Cross was the perfect sacrifice. There is no sin that will not be covered by God’s mercy when we sincerely turn to Him in confession and repentance.
Together today, let’s ask Jesus to please pray for all of us that our faith may never fail and thank Him for His mercy.
Blessings, Donna
