Luke 22:31-38 – Our Advocate
The devil is a terrible enemy to believers. He is always working evil in the churches of Christ, snatching away the Word of God from hearts, stirring up persecutions, suggesting false teaching, and encouraging divisions and fighting. We need to watch and pray and put on the whole armour of God; we are given a great promise that if we resist the devil, he will flee from us.
Christ also makes clear how a believer can persevere in faith. Because of Christ’s intercession on Peter’s behalf, he will not fall away. Our enemies are so strong, and our strength is so small, the world is so full of traps, and our heart is so weak, that it seems impossible for us to reach heaven. But the passage before us explains our safety. We have a mighty Friend at the right hand of God, who lives to speak for us. He obtains daily supplies of mercy and grace for our soul. We would have rejected and turned from God long before now, if Christ had not pleaded for us to be given the Holy Spirit to enable us to continue to believe. This is a huge comfort to Christians. Christ lives, and therefore our faith shall not fail.
God can cause the weaknesses of some members of His Church to work together for the benefit of the whole body of His people. He can make the fall of a disciple the means of preparing him to strengthen and encourage others, as He does with Peter. Have you ever fallen into sin, and by Christ’s mercy been raised to newness of life? Then you are just the person who can gently deal with others in the same situation. We can tell them from our own experience how evil and bitter sin is. We can caution them against treating temptation lightly. We can warn them against pride and neglect of prayer. We can tell them of Christ’s grace and compassion. We can be humble and meek remembering what we have gone through.
Questions
- Who makes it possible for us to continue on faithfully? How?
- How can we use our experience to encourage others?
Prayer Points
- Pray for opportunities to encourage other Christians.
- Use prayer points from In The Pew and pray for Margaret Allan.
- Pray for family matters.