Song 1:7 “Tell me, O you whom my soul loves,
Where do you pasture your flock,
Where do you make it lie down at noon?
For why should I be like one who veils herself
Beside the flocks of your companions?”
Luke 22:31 ¶ “Simon, Simon, behold, Satan has demanded permission to sift you like wheat;
Luke 22:32 but I have prayed for you, that your faith may not fail; and you, when once you have turned again, strengthen your brothers.”
Even though Jesus doesn’t want us to stumble in our walk with Him, and He has made provision for us to live in consistent victory, but He knows that there will be times when we choose to not appropriate our victory in Christ, and that we will stumble. Again, it is never His will for us to sin, and He has made a way for us not to, but in Peter’s case Jesus doesn’t seem troubled by the fact that Peter is going to stumble in the sifting. What Jesus prays for is that Peter, once he has stumbled, won’t allow his faith to fail. The word “fail” is written in the ‘present tense,’ which means continual action in the now. What Jesus is saying, is that His heart concern is not about Peter blowing it, but about having sinned he won’t stay in a state of shame, discouragement. In other words, it’s one thing to sin, but it’s another thing to give up as a result of the failure, and stop reaching for The Heights because Satan has convinced you that you are now disqualified, and thus don’t have the right to believe God’s best is still for you. I’ve seen this happen many times in the lives of sincere Christians. I’ve watched people stay in a faith-failure condition for days, weeks, months, and even years as a result of failure. I’ve known of some who have gone through a time of stumbling and have never recovered. They can’t get past the thoughts, unfortunately often with the help of others telling them, that their stumbling ruined their chance to ever know the fullness of Christ. To sin is a temporary thing, but faith-failure is long term, and that is what the Devil is after. Jesus didn’t pray that he wouldn’t stumble. Instead, He informed him that he would, but His prayer was that having stumbled it wouldn’t rob Peter of his faith. This is really important for the Shulamite to understand early in here journey pursuing Fullness. Jesus knows that in traveling further up and further in we will stumble from time to time, and when we do we can’t give up the climb, because of guilt, discouragement, and shame. Jesus knows that we are “dust” and He never gives up on our Heavenly dreams and calling; and He prays that when our “Dustness” shows up we won’t either. The Devil knows that you are destined for Christlikeness fully displayed, and he will do all he can to stop you from getting there, knowing that he really can’t do anything to stop you, but he can try to convince you to stop yourselves, by believing his lies.