Category: Devotion of the Day

Sifting and Strengthening

And the Lord said, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat: but I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not: and when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren.
Luke 22:31, 32

Here we have the Triangle of Spiritual Conflict: “Satan-you-I.” Satan would sift us, but we have an Advocate. The devil asked God for permission to try Job. Here it is Simon Peter he puts through the sifter. And never have more saints been in his hands than today. But he can go only so far. There is one praying for us who defeated Satan, who came to destroy the works of the devil. The Adversary is not in the first two chapters of the Bible, nor is he in the last two. Thank God for a Book that ends with devil out of business!

But he is very much in business now in the mighty tug-of-war for the souls of men. It is Christ or Antichrist and we are the prize. Peter’s faith was eclipsed but not extinct. And when he was converted, he certainly strengthened the brethren and fed the sheep-and does so to this day.

Sometimes we must go through the Sifter before we are of much use for Strengthening.

Between Two Fires

And when they had kindled a fire…Peter sat down among them.
Luke 22:55

As soon as they were come to land, they saw a fire of coals there.
John 21:9

Peter warmed himself at the enemy’s fire-and denied His Lord. The devil always has a convenient fire for saints who are about to slip. Taking it easy is often the prelude to backsliding. Comfort precedes collapse.

Days later, Peter warmed at another fire, the coals His Master had kindled on the beach. There he met the question, “Lovest thou me?” and received the commission, “Feed my sheep.”

Many Christians are living in an interim between Satan’s Fire and the Saviour’s Fire. If you have fallen because you warmed yourself when you should have warned yourself, the Lord seeks an interview. Peter, the backslider, was marked Special: “Go tell his disciples and Peter (Mk. 16:7). He does not want to fire you out but to fire you up!

If you have collapsed at Satan’s Fire, you may be converted at the Saviour’s Fire. Do not live “between fires.”