That Your Faith May Not Fail

Scripture Reading: Luke 22:31-34

Simon, Simon, behold Satan has 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.” Jesus said, “I tell you, Peter, the rooster will not crow this day until you deny three times that you know me.”

This text raises some questions about what was going on in the unseen realm. On what basis was Satan making this kind of demand? To what degree was he allowed what he was demanding? Why did the Lord allow Peter to fail the way he did? I don’t know if we can answer these questions satisfactorily.

What we can know, what we can be certain about is the role Jesus plays in Peter’s eventual victory. The writer of Hebrews tells us that, as our great High Priest, Jesus “ever lives to make intercession for us,” and that we can “Draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”

And while we need the kinds of things we pray for when we say The Lord’s Prayer, things like daily bread and the forgiveness of sins, we also need faith. Faith, it seems, always hangs in the balance – I speak as a man. In our trials and temptations, the thing we are always tempted to let go of is faith.

Jesus, in praying for Peter, didn’t say He prayed that Peter would be delivered from the circumstances that led to his three denials. He didn’t say he prayed that Peter wouldn’t deny Him. He prayed that Peter wouldn’t lose his faith. That prayer was answered.

It is interesting that years later when Peter wrote the book of 1^st Peter, he described faith this way:

If necessary you have been grieved by various trials, so that the testing of your faith – more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire – may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. (1 Peter 1:6-7)

If everything in your life burns to the ground; if all that you possess, even to the extent of your own life, is taken from you, but in the end, you still have your faith, you have the greatest treasure of all.

Now, lest you think the heavy burden of holding on to your faith all rests on you, hear Jesus:

I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail.