Sifting Through a Hard Saying

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Sifting Through a Hard Saying

“Simon, Simon, behold, Satan demanded to have you, that he might sift you like wheat, but I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned again, strengthen your brothers.” Peter said to him, “Lord, I am ready to go with you both to prison and to death.”  Luke 22:31-33 (ESV)

It was the morning after Peter walked on the water towards the Savior and it may have been a bright sun-shiney kinda morning in Capernaum. Jesus may have been giving the equivalent of a Men’s Breakfast devotional message that morning as He preached on how not to labor for food that perishes and that the food from Heaven was not from Moses but from His Father in Heaven. Jesus then tells them He is the bread of life but they grumble, “So the Jews grumbled about Him, because He said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.” They said, “Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How does He now say, ‘I have come down from heaven’?” (John 6:41-42) 

All of a sudden, Jesus says to them grumbling Jews, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.” WHAT!? So a whole bunch of disciples were vexed by this hard saying and from that time they walked with Him no more…but not all of them. Remember Peter? He walked on the water when Jesus said, “Come”.  He was there at the Transfiguration and he confessed that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of the living God. I think that Peter, being confident that he is hanging around the Messiah, has built up a little bit of pride.

Here’s why I think this. 

It is the Passover meal and Jesus will institute the Lord’s Supper and I am sure that Simon Peter has it figured out. That hard saying will now start to come together at this very moment and just when he thinks he has it down to a science, Jesus goes and changes the tempo by mentioning He will be betrayed. A dispute erupts and Jesus rebukes, encourages and then turns to Simon Peter and tells him that Satan wants to sift him like wheat.  Peter rebuffs at this but Jesus tells him he will deny knowing Him three times…and it came true. Sifting time for Peter and Jesus only prayed that his faith not fail, nothing more. 

Sifting can and does happen to us as well. We can receive plenty of revelation while reading God’s word or being in a ministry position where we can see God move mightily.  But if we remove ourselves from the firm foundation of Christ we leave ourselves wind open for Satan to give us the same kinda sifting that he gave Peter before the rooster crowed after those three times of denial. We have to be careful that our victories are because of Christ and not because of us. The other hard saying here is, “but I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned again, strengthen your brothers.”  

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Jesus doesn’t pray that Peter bind the enemy and dodge the attack, He prayed that Peter’s faith didn’t fail while he went through the sifting. God stays ahead of the sifter (or in this case our adversary) and lets us see that our strength to make it through the sifting comes from Him. Then after it has passed we can be restored, humbly, to our place on that firm foundation that has been built on PETRA. “And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this Rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.”  (Matthew 16:18) During this Resurrection season we need to be reminded that we need to be on a solid foundation. So realize this very thing…the finer something is sifted, the easier it is to be cast upon the wind, blown away and lost forever. – Chris Hughes is a graduate of the Colony of Mercy and is on the Freedom Fighter writing team

Team YOU: Judges 19-21; Proverbs 3; Luke 7:31-50

Motivations:  “Any thought process or heart attitude that is rooted in selfishness or pride will be purged. As a result of this tremendous shaking, all of Simon Peter’s self-confidence would be gone, and all that would remain was God’s sure foundation.”---John Bevere

Practice to Remember: Level 1:Ephesians 4:25; Level 2: Ephesians 4:11-16

Powered Up:  Hurry is the death of prayer. Samuel Chadwick