When You Turn Back from Turning Back
By Jon Walker
“But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers.” Luke 22:32 (NIV)
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When Jesus tells this to Peter, he says, “Satan has asked to sift you as wheat” (Luke 22:31 NIV).
Now, to me, it begs the question: Lord, did you have to say yes?
You may have days when you wonder if God is letting Satan sift you. You can take a God-view of it, knowing he’s always in control and that greater is he who is in you than he who is in the world (1 John 4:4).
A sifting brings glory to God, such as when Job still praised his maker, even when everything seemed lost and even his wife was telling him to give up on God.
A sifting also probes your weaknesses, revealing where you’re still thinking, “I can.” A good swift sift will push you to, “I can’t, but God can.”
In allowing you to be sifted, God is scraping away all the distraction and things that might hinder you from fulfilling your purpose.
The sifting to come would scrape away Peter’s stomp and snort bluster, revealing a heart that is teachable, able to welcome Cornelius and his Gentile clan into the family of God.
The way that Jesus tells Peter about the sifting has always held a special meaning to me. Jesus didn’t just say, “Get ready for a whirlwind of hurt! I know you’re going to let me down.”
Instead, Jesus points to the future: Peter would survive the sifting; he would return humbled, but stronger, with the purpose to strengthen his brothers. In a sense, “When you turn back from your turning back, you’ll be a servant who leads.”
The Lord said yes to the sifting of Peter so he would transform from a leader who served to a servant who leads, and that’s a significant shift from the thinking of men to the thinking of God.
If you’d like to receive these devotionals regularly, you can sign-up at www.gracecreates.com/subscribe/. Jon Walker writes from www.gracecreates.com. He is a Zondervan author, and the former writer/editor of the Purpose Driven Life On-Line Devotionals. This devotional is copyrighted 2009 by Jon Walker. Used by permission.
