Prayed for by Name

The Lord said, “Simon, Simon, behold, Satan asked to have all of you, that he might sift you as wheat, but I prayed for you, that your faith wouldn’t fail. You, when once you have turned again, establish your brothers.” (Luke 22:31-32, WEB)

Jesus tells Peter that Satan has demanded to sift him like wheat, and Peter has no idea yet how badly he is about to fail. He is still confident, still sure he would follow Jesus to prison and death, and the failure is only hours away. Before the failure, before the denials by the fire, before the rooster, Jesus says something Peter must have replayed for years afterward. But I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail, and when you have turned again, strengthen your brothers.

Jesus does not promise Peter will not fall. He knows Peter will; he says as much in the same breath. What he promises is that he has already prayed, and that the prayer is not that Peter avoids the fall but that his faith survives it. There is a difference between those two prayers, and the difference is everything for a man who has fallen more times than he can bear to name. Christ did not pray that Peter would be spared the failure. He prayed that the failure would not be the end of Peter's faith.

And look what Jesus assumes about the far side of the failure. When you have turned again, he says, not if. The turning back is treated as certain, as already accounted for, and past the turning there is a job waiting. Strengthen your brothers. The very man who fell hardest becomes the one who steadies others, and the falling is somehow folded into what makes him useful. He will know the way back because he had to walk it himself.

Whatever you did last night, Christ is praying for you now, and his prayer is not that you were perfect, because he was never expecting perfect. It is that your faith holds and that you turn back, because there are men further down the road than you who will need what you are learning on the way home. Your return is not only for you. Someone is going to need the road you are walking back.

Lord Jesus, thank you that you prayed for me before I ever failed you. Keep my faith from failing, turn me back to you again, and let my return be of use to another man someday.