His petition concerning us causes us not to fail in faith

Luke 22:32 But I have made petition concerning you that your faith would not fail; and you, once you have turned again, establish your brothers.

While eating the Passover feast, the Lord revealed His death to the disciples. And the time when the Lord speaking concerning the disciples and Peter would be stumbled by His death (footnote 1), the record in Luke specifically mentions Simon in the conversations. "Simon, Simon, behold, Satan has asked to have you all to sift you as wheat. But I have made petition concerning you that your faith would not fail; and you, once you have turned again, establish your brothers" (Luke 22: 31-32).

While I read it this morning, I felt the Lord's humanity is sweet and tender toward us. He really knows the healing art.

For example, sometimes I fail in big things, and I trouble myself afterwards. I say to myself, I am a Christian, and why did I fail like this? Was I not being spiritual and not relying on You enough? I can blame myself a lot. Even when I'm encouraged to get over my self-condemnation, it can come back to me again and again. Oh, but my Saviour Lord, He knows that we're going to fail, and He has made petition for us. On our behalf, even before we fail, He was there overseeing and praying for us. Eventually, our failure is not to cause us to turn away from Him but cause us to turn ourselves to Him so that we can establish our fellow believers.

Many times, this is also our experience. We might still be in tears and find it hard to love Him because of our failures. We might be very disappointed about who we are and find it difficult to go on. When we do serve, we doubt ourselves and wonder, Lord, am I still qualified to serve You and follow You?

Oh, He knows, and not only so, what we are going through can be used to establish others. We can fail, but not fail in faith. We might fail for a short while, but not forever. The one remains forever is Himself- the embodiment of the Word and His lovingkindness (Psalm 136; Luke 21:33)

Lord, thank You for having petition for me before I fail. I shall forget the past, and simply focus on You alone. Your intention is not to remove my foreseen failures but to give Yourself to me even more. Cause me always turn my heart to You whenever I feel that I am strong or weak. When my heart turns, You have a way in me and even to others. I love You, Lord.


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*footnote 1: The timing here in Matthew and Mark is different from Luke and John. In Matthew 26:30-35 Mark 14:26-31, Jesus and disciplines went out to the Mount of Olives, and the conversations concerning disciples and Peter would be stumbled followed. Whereas in Luke 22:31-39 and John 13:30-38 indicated the conversations were in the midst of the Passover feast. The record in John did not even mention about their going out to the Mount of Olives.