“I
have prayed for you, that your faith not fail. And after you have come through
your time of testing, turn to your companions and give them a fresh start”
(Luke 22:32 The Message).
There
may be no other disciple in the New Testament with which so many believers
today can personally identify than Simon Peter. He was passionate and
headstrong; quick to repent, and even sometimes quicker to blow it once more.
His life unfolds before us in great drama, speaking time and and time again to
the issues that lay within our own hearts.
Jesus
told Peter, “Satan has desired you, that he might sift you as wheat.” That’s
probably not anything you would want to hear from the Lord, is it? But He goes
on to say, “I have prayed for you, that your faith not fail. And after you have
come through your time of testing, turn to your companions and give them a
fresh start” (Luke 22:32 The Message).
The testing came in the Garden that night when Jesus was
arrested and Peter ultimately fell – denying that he even knew Jesus. We know
from Scripture that after the rooster crowed, “Peter went out and wept
bitterly.”(vs.62). It would be the last time he saw Jesus until after the
resurrection.
Can you imagine how tortured his soul must have been? We can
hear the hissing whispers of the Accuser blasting him mercilesly for denying
Jesus, for leaving Him in the hands of those who murdered Him. All hope was
lost; Peter had nothing left to live for now.
But then something happened. Jesus rose from the dead.
Oh what a difference that made for Peter….and for us! Peter
wrote, “Blessed be the God and
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy has
begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from
the dead!” (1 Peter 1:3).
This was a very real and personal fact for Peter; when Jesus
rose from the dead – so did Peter, in a manner of speaking. And now Peter
writes his letters to fulfill the very directive which the Lord gave him: “And
after you have come through your time of testing, turn to your companions and
give them a fresh start.”
Do you think Jesus might say the same thing to you as you face your own fiery trial? And, oh, wouldn't it be wonderful if He did?!
