Are you being sifted?
Jesus knew Peter would deny Him, yet He called him to be His disciple, saying: ‘And the Lord said, “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; and when you have returned to Me, strengthen your brethren.”’ (Luke 22:31-32 NKJV).
The mistakes you make and the messes you create usually don’t happen by accident but by choice. Yet they don’t put you beyond the reach of God’s grace. The secret of victory is to let God use your mistakes to develop you rather than let Satan use them to destroy you.
Note the words ‘Satan has asked for you’. Satan wants to take back what he lost – you. When you doubt, he has the power to bring you down; you’re setting yourself up to fail. Have you ever seen wheat going through a threshing process? It’s not a pretty sight. And when it happens in your life, it doesn’t feel good. So the question is, if Peter, one of Christ’s handpicked disciples, could fail, how much more likely is it to happen to you? And when it does, what do you suppose the Lord wants to accomplish through it?
Today your life may be a mess, but if you turn to God, He can make something beautiful out of it. And one more thought: Jesus told Peter, ‘I have prayed for you.’ Today, Jesus is praying for you. ‘If any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous’ (1 John 2:1 KJV).
So, if you have fallen, Jesus will lift you up and restore you.