But I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not: and when thou art converted,
strengthen thy brethren(Luke 22:)
)
Father, I ask for the grace to remain humble regardless of becoming great in Jesus Name. I
declare, I will not conform to the world's standards or conform to the dictates of the world but I
will live my life according to YOUR Word in Jesus' Name. Father, I make a commitment to live
in accordance to YOUR Word to the point that there shall be a noticeable difference between
the world and me. I declare as I become great, I will continue to serve and I will not become big
in my own eyes in Jesus' Name.
In response to the argument that ensued amongst the disciples with regards who will be the
greatest, Jesus in our text engages his disciples in a discussion stating how the kings of the
gentiles lord it over their people. He obviously was indirectly trying to let HIS disciples know
they were behaving like the gentiles. The word gentiles in the bible is used to describe
unbelievers or the people of the world (i.e. being worldly), which invariably means that Jesus
was telling his disciples that they had become worldly. Has the church today become worldly?
Are we more concerned about who is the greatest amongst us just like the disciples, rather
than making Jesus the centre of all we do? Have we become so worldly to the extent that
there is no difference between the world and us? Jesus in our text commands his disciples
NOT TO BE SO. It is important to highlight that at no point in our text did Jesus have an issue
with greatness or becoming great. His issue was more around the motive behind becoming
great, such that one begins to lord over others and that was what led to the argument. This is
why Jesus had to teach on greatness, making a comparison between the way the world views
greatness and the way God views greatness, which is all about service. He finally laid the
matter to rest by stating that HE had come to us as one who serves, which is what we should
emulate. We therefore need to ask God to grant us the grace to remain humble and remain
within HIS perspective of greatness.
And he said unto them, The kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over the
Before Jesus revealed to Peter that Satan had desired to sift him, HE had already
prayed for him. I believe this was a deliberate attempt by Jesus to teach us how we
need to stand by each other when any of us is going through challenges and
temptations regardless of the form. We live in times where we prefer to gossip and
condemn instead of getting down on our knees to pray when we see our brother or
sister fall into temptation. Our text reveals the fact that Jesus had already prayed for
Peter even before he informed him, so how did Jesus know about Satan's plan and
yet Peter was totally oblivious to it? It is important to point out the fact that we cannot
see ourselves, which is why we need a mirror in order to see ourselves. It means
that, if we are deviating from our faith or backsliding to our old ways, it is possible that
we would not know because we cannot see ourselves. It is therefore imperative that
we have people around us who have the liberty to speak to us especially when we
have attained levels of success in life. Is there anyone around you who has attained
status of success and on the account of this success has started drifting away from
the faith? Before you engage them, you need to get down on your knees and pray for
them rather than gossip about them. We need to rise up to our responsibility by
getting down on our knees to pray for such people rather than becoming envious of
them, especially when your relationship with them has been strained as a result of
their status. The fact that Jesus had prayed for Peter is indicative of the fact that
prayer is the weapon God has given us to use to counter and destroy Satan's plans.
We therefore need to maintain a stay in the place of prayer to neutralize and destroy
every evil plan and conspiracy that Satan has conceived in a bid to pull us down, so
that our faith does not fail. I declare that your faith will not fail in Jesus Name.
)
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