DAMAGED PETER
First of three devotions in Sifting Self Series
Luke 22:28-34, 54-62
Luke 22:31-34: “Simon, Simon, [Peter], Satan has asked to sift you as wheat. But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers.”
“Peter replied, ‘Lord, I am ready to go with You to prison and to death.’
“Jesus answered, ‘I tell you, Peter, before the rooster crows today, you will deny three times that you know Me.’”
Sift means to filter something through a mesh that only allows certain particles to pass through. What’s caught in the mesh during spiritual sifting are dredges of the old sinful nature. After sifting, people emerge damaged, but better.
Satan asks to sift all God’s kids. Sifting hurts. Jesus heals people, as He did Pater.
The devil brings trials that he hopes ruin believers’ testimony and relationship with God. But God uses sifting for His purpose: growing believers in Christlikeness. When Jesus gives the devil permission to sift, He prays that our faith does not fail.
Jesus saw great potential in Peter. He sees great potential in us, too. If we hinder God’s plan, we must know that He’s determined to sift away what’s not His will in our lives.
The opening Scripture shows Peter bragging about how he’ll accompany Jesus to prison…even to death! During his sifting, (verses 54-62), know-it-all Peter gets called out.
In the middle of a courtyard, a servant girl announced that Peter was with Jesus. Peter denied it saying, “Woman, I don’t know Him.” Soon after, another confirmed that Peter was one of them. “Man, I am not!” Peter insisted.
Pride will not survive the sifting process. But resulting humiliation will. Jesus sifted Peter in Matthew 16:21-23. “Get behind Me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to Me; you do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men.” Peter needed to learn that Christ did not come to free Israel from Roman oppression, but to save humans from eternal death.
Peter’s third denial broke his heart. A man asserted, “Certainly this fellow was with Him, for he is a Galilean.”
Take Home Nugget
“Peter replied, ‘Man, I don’t know what you’re talking about!’ Just as he was speaking, the rooster crowed. The Lord turned and looked straight at Peter. Then Peter remembered the word the Lord had spoken to him: ‘Before the rooster crows today, you will disown Me three times.’” Emphasis mine.
Peter was indeed damaged. Peter’s will and self-assurance was broken. Peter had been sifted. Verse 62 says that Peter went outside and wept bitterly. See the lesson linked below that proves Peter’s growth after being sifted.
Sifting hurts, but we’re better Christians afterwards.
J.D. Griffith
Written for http://www.Biblestudyforkids.
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