Helping Melanie get desserts ready, I’ve been sifting flour. It had been a long time. It takes a long time, revealing my impatience. Tedious business – sifting. The only thing worse would be to be sifted.
Once Jesus told Peter, “Simon, Simon Satan has asked to sift you like wheat” (Luke 22:31). If I had been Peter I might have asked Jesus, “Well what did you say to him?” Paul had been concerned for the Thessalonians because Satan blocked his way from seeing them (2:18). Remember the local synagogue leaders had run Paul and his companions out of town. They even followed him to disrupt. Satan trying to sift again.
Paul’s response parallels Jesus’ response. Jesus said, “But I have prayed for you” (Luke 22:32). Whew! Jesus prayed against Simon’s sifting and told him to strengthen his brothers when he was restored. In the same way Paul prayed earnestly for the new believers in Thessalonica.
How shall we pray for each other? Regularly. “Night and day we pray.” Earnestly. Relationally. “That we may see you again . . .” Unselfishly. “And supply what is lacking in your faith.”
Know this for certain: the enemy would love to sift you and me. So we pray for each other regularly, earnestly, relationally, and unselfishly. Jesus is able to save us completely as we come to God through him because he ever lives to intercede for us (Hebrews 7:25). Robert Murray McCheyne said, “If I could hear Jesus praying in the next room, I would not fear a million enemies. The distance makes no difference. He is praying.” We won’t be sifted.
