Eyes Wide Open: 41-Day Lenten Devotional Sample

Sifted Saints

“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

Peter, the disciple who failed at almost every turn. Fearful, doubting, rash. Peter gets it right one time: “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God” (Matt. 16:16), but his success is quickly overshadowed with yet another rebuke: “Get behind me, Satan!” (Matt. 16:23).

Then there is Peter’s most famous failure. Three times he denies knowing Jesus. The rooster crows and Peter retreats to a lonely place to weep bitterly.

The road to the cross is one of intense suffering for Jesus, but for Peter, it’s not easy either. Each step unmasks Peter’s sinfulness. With one breath, he declares Jesus is Messiah and with the next he denies Jesus will go to the cross; with one breath, he declares unwavering loyalty (“I’ll even die with you”) and with the next “I don’t know the man!” 

In a story found only in Luke’s Gospel (22:31-34), Jesus says Satan asked to sift the disciples like wheat. Sifting requires crushing heads of wheat and tossing the pieces into the air so the chaff blows away while the grain falls back into the basket. But Jesus tells Peter, “I prayed for you, specifically.” Jesus doesn’t pray the sifting will pass over, but that in the sifting, Peter wouldn’t be fatally wounded. The sifting will come, but out of it, Peter will find forgiveness in repentance andbe commissioned to strengthen the others. 

The road to the cross is hard for us because it reveals the dark, broken, hurting, confusing, fearful, and downright ugly things in our lives. We want to deny it’s there, but then the rooster crows and we weep bitterly at our plight. 

But the road to the cross should also be our most victorious hour, because Jesus promises that his suffering means our sifting is not fatal. The cross leads us to repentance and to mission. Even though his worst hour is about to arrive, Peter’s most triumphant hour is also coming: “I prayed and you’re not going to fail, Simon. When you have repented and turned to me, strengthen and build up your brothers.” 

The cross sifts, but the cross also commissions.

Prayer: Lord, thank you that because of the cross, my failure is not fatal. I confess my sin and believe you forgive me because of Jesus’ death on the cross. Please use me to share this amazing story of forgiveness with others. May I, like Peter, strengthen and encourage others because of what you have done in me. Amen.

- Written by Rochelle Scheuermann