When I was attending Montana State University in Bozeman, Montana, I attended Grace Bible Church. One of the church families, the Heetderks, had known the Kutz family when they lived in nearby Wilsall where my father-in-law pastored the Wilsall Bible Church. Pastor Kutz and family moved to Libby in 1955 to pastor Faith Bible Church which had just started. My family moved to Libby in 1958 and we ended up attending FBC, where I met Pastor Kutz’s daughter, Kathy!  We married between my junior and senior years at MSU.  Up until then, Kathy attended Prairie Bible college in Alberta, Canada. Before Kathy joined me in Bozeman, nearly every Sunday at church, one of the Heetderks said to me, “Tell the Kutzes that we pray for them every day.”

     How encouraging–and empowering–to have others who are committed to pray for us on a regular basis.  As believers, we all need a “support team” that is backing us in prayer, for we are in a spiritual battle against an adversary that does all he can to discourage and discredit us, rob us of our joy and destroy our ministry.  Missionaries often have to raise financial support but even more, to develop a prayer team if they are to be successful in their ministry.  The Apostle Paul, in writing to the church at Colossae, asked them to devote themselves to  pray for him (and his mission team) “that God may open up to us a door for the word, so that we may speak forth the mystery of Christ…” (Col. 4:2,3). 

       As important and encouraging as it is to have others supporting us in prayer, just imagine how valuable and crucial it is to have Jesus praying for us!  In the evening before His betrayal, arrest, trial and torture, Christ turned to Peter and said, “Simon, Simon, behold Satan has demanded permission to sift you like wheat; but I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail; and you, when once you have turned again, strengthen your brothers” (Lk. 22:31,32). Peter, of course, boldly proclaimed that he would never deny Christ, but Christ knew better (vv. 33,34). Actually, Satan’s request was not just concerning Peter, but for all the disciples, for the pronoun “you” (in “sift you”) is plural. Satan knew (and still knows) that the fall of Christian leaders causes many others to fall (the “ripple effect”) and if all of the disciples could be made to abandon the faith, the gospel could not be spread. 

     Jesus turned specifically to Peter, who was the recognized spokesman for the disciples, and even though He knew Peter would deny Him, informed him that He would be praying for him that his “faith may not fail.”  And we know that Peter, though he denied even knowing the Lord, did turn around once he had the opportunity to see–and visit with–the risen Lord and he became a leader in the fledgling church in Jerusalem as well as a missionary boldly preaching the resurrection and need for repentance. Through the witness of Peter and the other apostles (including Paul), the gospel ultimately came to us–PTL!

     Satan continues to attack those who are spreading the gospel. He knows the destruction it causes in the lives of those influenced by the one who falls.  The “ripple effect” may last for years, and many weaker Christians may never recover. But, be encouraged!  The One who prayed for Peter and the other Apostles “…is able to save forever those who draw near to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them” (Heb. 7:25). 

     In Jesus’ “high priestly” prayer just before His arrest in the garden, Jesus prayed for His disciples that the Father would “keep them… that they may be one, even as We are one… that they may have My joy made full in themselves…keep them from the evil one…sanctify them in the truth” (Jn. 17:11-17). But then Jesus went on to pray: “I do not ask in behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in Me through their word that they may all be one; even as Thou, Father , art in Me and I in Thee, that they also may be in Us; that the world may believe that Thou didst send Me. And the glory which Thou hast given Me I have given to them; that they may be one, just as We are one; I in them, and Thou in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, that the world may know that Thou didst send Me, and didst love them, even as Thou didst love Me. Father, I desire that they also, whom Thou hast given Me, be with Me where I am, in order that they may behold My glory, which Thou hast given Me…” (vv. 20-24).  

     We, as followers of Jesus Christ, are included in “those also who believe in Me through their word” !  Jesus prayed for us, just as He prayed for His apostles, and He continues to intercede for us when we are attacked by “the accuser of the brethren” (Rev. 12:1).  Just as God answered Jesus’ intercessory prayer for Peter, so He will answer His intercessory prayer for us!  PTL!

Forever His,

Pastor Dave