Occasionally you’ll find some really good stuff on Xian social media. This was a Twitter thread I ran across,* instantly saw its value to this site, and ‘unrolled’ it to equip and encourage you in your discipleship.
I hope you enjoy Ashley’s colorful take on Peter as much as I did.
So Peter.
Walks on water. Yay.
Jesus says his testimony will be the bedrock of the church. Yay.
Jesus says he’s doing Satan’s work. Yikes.
Argues who’s the greatest. Yikes.
Makes big bold claims for Jesus (I’ll go with you to death!) Yay.
Follows Jesus from a distance. Yikes.
Denies Jesus altogether. Yikes times infinity.
Weeps and repents. Yay.
Restored to Jesus. Yay.
Runs to the empty tomb. Yay.
Makes moves in the early church. Yay.
Falls into fear of man/racism & gets rebuked by another apostle. Yikes.
Writes some letters that end up in the New Testament, helping other Christians not make his mistakes and giving wisdom for how to be a church. Yay.
Many moments in between, he’s putting his foot in his mouth and getting it wrong. In other random moments, he’s getting it right.
(Let’s not forget the Mount of Transfiguration where he literally needs to be interrupted because he won’t shut up in a really important moment, and he’s super slow to what’s going on. Yet another “Yikes” moment. I could go on.)
In all of these Yay-or-Yikes moments, Jesus’s words in Luke 22:31-32 give me hope.
“Simon, look out. Satan has asked to sift you like wheat. But I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail. And you, when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers.”
These very words are said immediately before Jesus tells Simon Peter that he will fail! As in Jesus prays for his friend right in the middle of Peter’s absurdity and failure.
And eventually, that prayer did come to pass after a lot of other cyclical failures.
What strikes me is that Peter didn’t have this perfectly linear story. He went through cycles of belief, unbelief, and repentance. He went through various versions of rebuke as he grew. Even as an apostle! This gives me so much hope.
In the end, Jesus’ prayer DID come to pass. The road was rocky, he went through lots of Yays-and-Yikes, but Peter did stay true to his faith in the end, and he did “strengthen the brethren” in his epistles.
And Jesus’ prayer gives me an example,an answer for what I should do if I, or someone I know, is in the “Yikes” season.
I should pray!
I don’t know who in your life is being sifted like wheat, or denying Christ, or in a Yikes season. But let’s pray that their faith won’t fail.
Let’s believe that God has a way of turning Yikes into Yays and with his intercession on our side, he will keep us and convict us and bring us round to resurrection glory.
He did it for Peter. Let’s not act like he can’t do it for any one of us. Let’s pray like that’s our God.
–Ashley Gorman
*Alas, Ashley no longer has a Twitter account, so I’m unable to give a fuller citation of credit to her…but I’m very glad I had the foresight to copy and paste her original thread!
Love this. I have been reading about prayers of intercession. So encouraged to know He intercedes in the middle of the cycling! I love what He prayed for Peter… as always Jesus just gets to the heart of a matter… protect His faith and use Him when this is over. That really helps me know how to pray His heart! Thanks for always being obedient to share!
The whole thing is great but my heart is underlining and highlighting those last two paragraphs. They mean everything to me.
Bless you with joy, Kelli!