Lately I’ve renewed my interest in the topic of encouragement in the Bible. Yesterday, I started a word study. I was looking at different words that could mean encouragement in one form or another. Words like help, comfort, support, exhort, and edify.
Then I came across the passage where Jesus told Peter the devil wanted to sift him like wheat, “but I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned again, strengthen your brothers,” (Luke 22:32).
Know how sometimes when we study God’s word something new jumps off the page? It’s like we’ve never read the verse before because we gain an entirely new perspective on the passage.
That’s what happened to me yesterday morning when I read this verse and I thought about it all day. Most of us know what sifting means. The wheat is put into a large strainer. It is shaken roughly to separate the grain from the dirt and impurities.
Peter was in for a rough time and Jesus
knew it.
Let’s remember with the exception of John, all the
other apostles ran away. Peter was there
during that mock trial in front of the high priest.
I know the scriptures do not tell us what Peter
was thinking. I know he was always
bold. When he walked on the water, he
was the only who tried. No one else got
out of the boat.
Peter was the proclaimed that Jesus was the
Christ, the Son of God. He was also the
one who pulled Christ aside and rebuked Him for saying He was going to
die.
Finally, when Jesus was arrested in the Garden of
Gethsemane Peter raised his sword and cut off Malchus’s ear in an attempt to
defend His Lord. But Jesus stopped him.
Like I said, we don’t know what Peter was
thinking, but we know what he had experienced up until this time. Jesus told the
apostle he would deny Him three times and He did.
Jesus knew something else too. The devil would win the battle, but he would
not win the war over Peter’s soul. Jesus had prayed for Peter – that his faith
would not fail. It did, but only
temporarily.
Jesus told Peter “And when you have
turned again, strengthen your brothers.”
Being who He was, the Savior knew Peter would repent and come back
to Him.
Peter hit rock bottom when he denied
Jesus, but he didn’t stay there. He came
back even stronger than ever. Because of
his experience that night, he could relate to how the other apostles felt about
running away.
I have no doubt he strengthened
them. Through his renewed courage and
resolve, he became an example for them to serve Christ for the rest of their
lives.
Christ above all things - Robin
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