12/12/2024
We are failing....and we are failing badly....
Luke said in 22:31-32 (NASB), "Simon, Simon, behold, Satan has demanded permission to sift you like wheat, but I have prayed for you, that your faith may not fail, and you, when once you have turned again, strengthen your brothers."
We are being inundated/overcome/overwhelmed by various trials, tribulations and adversities that don't seem to have an end....nor some kind of expiration date at times. I KNOW that these things at times can be so overbearing that we don't know if we'll EVER get out! I know all about it because I'm in the middle of it myself. In talking to my mother this morning regarding having someone my family knows added to her prayer list, I made the comment that with all that is going on around us, the prayer list is not only getting longer, but the only way that some people are leaving that prayer list is by death. My mother echoed it by saying that folk are leaving the prayer list not the way we would like them to.
Luke tells us in the above verses that the accuser not only wants to "sift us like wheat," but he wants to shake Peter's faith so forcefully that he would fall, proving that God's faithful servant was lacking. The word for "you" in that verse is plural...meaning that Jesus was informing Peter that Satan had his sights set on ALL the disciples....ALL of the people that name the Name of Jesus and live their lives for Him. Satan is not accusing us of doing wrong before God, but he wants to shake all of us apart, or break us down to the point that he crushes us and wrecks our faith. The devil wants to destroy the faith of EVERY.SINGLE.BELIEVER. But Jesus tells us that He's pleaded in prayer for us all that our faith doesn't fail.
But we are failing....we know how to say all of the Christianese lingo and sayings, but PUTTING what we SAY into PRACTICE is another animal altogether. God, and the things that He COMMANDS us, is more than some catchy cliché or saying. He requires ACTION on our part in the form of telling other people what God has done for us while we were going through OUR trial, tribulation or adversity....but it depends upon HOW we go through that adversity.
1 Peter 1:7-10(NKJV) tells us how...."...that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ..." In other words, the way that we respond to life's hardships are supposed to REFLECT the character of Christ. THIS kind of response will bring honor to His name. If you need a reminder, the fruit of the Spirit is found in Galatians 5:22-26. There is ALWAYS the temptation that when we face hard times we question God. We can become easily discouraged because we see others maybe not going through like we are, not facing the same consequences or 'punishment' that we are...but God isn't concerned about them as much as He's concerned about YOU because YOU are the one that's representing HIM, and YOU should be responding as HE (Jesus) would respond....
...but we are failing....
And we will CONTINUE to fail until we respond/fight back the way GOD wants us to respond so that He can win/draw to Him the one that doesn't know HIM like YOU and I do. We are just role players, the supporting cast, in GOD's production....and GOD is going to get HIS glory by how YOU play your part three stacks.....willingly or UNwillingly, play your part three stacks, play YOUR part.
