“Satan . . . wants to separate you from me as a farmer separates wheat from husks. But I have prayed for you . . . that your faith will not fail. So when you recover, strengthen the other disciples.”Luke 22:32 (GW)
No matter how badly you think you’ve messed up in life, recovery is possible with prayer. Not only that, but God can use your failures to help others.
In the Bible, Peter is a perfect example of someone who messed up—a guy who had a massive personal yet public failure—and then recovered. But in this story, it wasn’t his prayer or someone else’s prayer that helped him recover; it was Jesus’ prayer.
At the Lord’s Supper, Jesus told his disciples that one of them would betray him. Peter, of course, knew it couldn’t be him. He impulsively told Jesus that he would go to prison with him—and would even die for him!
But Jesus said to Peter, “I can guarantee that the rooster won’t crow tonight until you say three times that you don’t know me” (Luke 22:34 GW).
Jesus didn’t predict just Peter’s fall; Jesus also knew Peter would recover and use his failures to help others. Jesus said in Luke 22:32, “Satan . . . wants to separate you from me as a farmer separates wheat from husks. But I have prayed for you . . . that your faith will not fail. So when you recover, strengthen the other disciples” (GW).
That’s what Jesus is doing in heaven right now. He’s praying for you because he knows Satan wants to ruin your life. If Jesus thought there was something more important to be doing than to pray, he’d do that instead. That’s how important prayer is to both the recovery process and the commissioning process. Jesus prayed and commissioned Peter to “strengthen the other disciples”—to encourage his brothers and sisters in God’s family.
And he commissions you to help others too.
You don’t need to worry about how badly you’ve fallen in life. God knows about your mistakes and setbacks long before you do. God is a God of recovery, and he’ll use every circumstance in your life for his purposes.
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