“Simon, Simon, behold, Satan has Demanded Permission to sift you like wheat; but I have prayed for you, that your faith may not fail; and you, when once you have turned again, strengthen your brothers.” But he said to Him, “Lord, with You I am ready to go both to prison and to death!” And He said, “I say to you, Peter, the rooster will not crow today until you have denied three times that you know Me.” ~ Luke 22:31-34

We tend to remember that Peter denied Jesus, but sometimes we overlook what Jesus said: that Satan demanded permission to sift Peter. Rather than refusing permission to Satan, Jesus prayed for Peter’s faith not to fail and for Peter to return to strengthen his brothers after his sifting. Sifting wheat separates the edible grain from the nonedible casing. Satan’s sifting, what most of us would call a trial, separated the useless, worldly attributes of Peter from the productive, godly attributes.

Heavenly Father, I don’t like to be sifted, but I need to be. Let my worldly thoughts, habits, and actions be carried away in the wind, leaving an image more like Jesus. In His name. Amen.

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