The Strengthened Becomes the Strengthener

I love reading about the lives of the apostles Peter and Paul.  I love that God brought them through such bleakness into strengthened faith.  I love that their 'happy ending' didn't include marriage and babies like Ruth or prosperity like Job and Joseph.  Their lives on this earth were much like their Savior's - with much pain, sorrow and joyful faith that their happy ending was waiting for them where rust and moth do not destroy.  

When I feel as though I am being sifted like wheat, I turn to these stories.  They encourage me to keep going, keep fighting the good fight of faith.  They help me to remember that anything short of hell is pure grace, and to encourage others out of my open wounds that bleed joy.

One sermon I love listening to is John Piper's The Sifting of Simon Peter.  Piper shares with us God's heart in protecting and strengthening our faith and encourages us to share the strength and joy we receive.

"This is not to lay a burden on you, but only to increase your joy. The joy we have in the promises of God is always doubled when it bubbles up over the brim of our life and spill over onto others. What about the other ten apostles (not counting Judas)? Satan was going to sift them too. Did Jesus pray for them? Yes he did. But he did not ask the Father to guard their faith in the very same way he guarded Peter's. God broke the back of Peter's pride and self-reliance that night in the agony of Satan's sieve. But he did not let him go. He turned him around and forgave him and restored him and strengthened his faith. And now it was Peter's mission to strengthen the other ten. Jesus provided for the ten by providing for Peter. The strengthened becomes the strengthener. 

There is a great lesson here for us. Sometimes God will deal with you directly, strengthening your faith alone in the wee hours of the morning. But most of the time (we might say ten-elevenths of the time) God strengthens our faith through another person. God sends us some Simon Peter who brings just the word of grace we need to keep on in the faith: some testimony about how "Weeping may tarry for the night, but joy comes with the morning" (Psalm 30:5). Eternal security is a community project. Whenever God encourages your heart with the promise that in Satan's sifting your faith will not fail, then take that encouragement and double your joy by using it to strengthen your brothers and sisters."