iPray Fridays: That your faith may not fail

"Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift all of 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.”

Luke 22: 31 -32

The beautiful thing about God's word is the way a verse or passage you have read so many times can literally just jump off the page at you as if seeing it for the very first time. I had that experience this morning with the Scripture above. Later on in this same chapter, Peter is tested and he does fail...yet Jesus said he would pray for him that his faith may not fail. This means there is a difference between making a mistake (failing) and your faith failing. 


I don't know how it is that we become conditioned to believe that hard times and the challenges of life have to do with God punishing us. I must admit that in recent times I have been pondering on my understanding of who God is and how He relates with His children. Sometimes the God I see in the Bible is different from the God I have been taught about. Satan is the enemy, he wants to sift us as wheat..I just realised something as I write...wheat must be sifted to separate the chaff from the grain...it is uncomfortable but then how do we know that we know what we think we know if we aren't tested (I hope that makes sense)? 


Sometimes we find the sifting process too hard or too difficult or too long and somewhere our faith fails...we don't believe what we used to believe, we don't trust who we used to trust. However today like Jesus I pray that our faith does not fail, that we hold on through the sifting process. That even though like Peter we fail...the seed of faith on the inside of us remains viable and like a mustard seed no matter how tiny it is under the right conditions it will germinate and become a mighty tree. Most importantly, when we turn back to the right path we must share our story and encourage our brethren back to the Ancient paths.


Selah.


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