“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
In this passage, Jesus is praying for Simon Peter, what a wonderful reassurance; when we pray in the name of Jesus; He intercedes for us. This was a time when satan was seeking to separate Peter from Christ; admit it, it does happen to us too. On this side of Paradise, when we see something more exciting in this world than holding our eyes upon His Cross, we need to be reminded that He is still in our presence; it is us that are turning away.
What is tempting you to turn away? There are wrongs, there are failures, and there are injustices. Where is God in the middle of temptations? We want to escape and find safety. He is permitting challenges; to draw us closer to Him.
You and I could mention events in our lifetime that the Lord could have stopped, but He didn't. In spite of the many, seemingly unjust challenges that we face…we trust Him. They are a part of His perfect plan for us. You can't explain it. We aren't able to understand it, and there will be times you won't like it. We trust Him anyway.
Living in North America on this side of Paradise, too often we don’t know how much we have been blessed. How often we have been rescued, gifted, healed or been comforted by our Savior’s prayers. When the end of our journey arrives and we are brought into our Heavenly home, we will hopefully be able to realize all of the times He has touched our lives and we will have endless times to praise Him.
These children in the attached photo, attend the Lutheran School in St. Marc and they pray for you daily. They ask their Savior to bless your journey, they give thanks for you and rejoice for the blessings that you have provided for them; a meal at their school every day. That day when you stand at the feet of your Savior, look around you and see their joy filled faces next to you as they join in praising our Savior. I would like to close this devotion with the words from the first verse of the hymn ‘While yet the Morn is Breaking’ which was written by Johannes Muehlmann in 1613.
“While yet the morn is breaking, I thank my God once more, beneath whose care awaking, I find the night is o'er, I thank Him that He calls me to life and health anew; I know, whate'er befalls me, His care will still be true.”
Heavenly Father, you have called your servants to ventures of which we cannot see the ending, by paths as yet untrodden, through perils unknown. Give us faith to go out with good courage, not knowing where we go but only that your hand is leading us and your love supporting us through Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior. Amen.
May God be with you,
Jay