Breaking Us Down So We Can Be Better

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.” New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update (LaHabra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995), Lk 22:31–32.

"Jesus regards the crisis about to be gone through by His disciples as now which shall not only end happily, but result in spiritual benefit to themselves, and qualify them for being helpful to others." The Training of the Twelve, A. B. Bruce, pp. 476.

Over time, the disciples will become stronger and able to help those around them, but their weaknesses have to be revealed. The strongest of them (Peter) will become stronger, the weakest (Judas) will become weaker and ultimately fail. Note the difference in the end results of the two. Jesus tells them that there is no cause for despair though; sin can be forgiven, but it also can be used for good for our self and others, as Bruce observes:

Falls, rightly improved, may become stepping stones to Christian virtue, and a training for the office of the comforter and guide. How healing such a view to the troubled conscience? Men who have erred, and who take a serious thought of their sin, are apt to consume their hearts and waste their time in bitter reflections on their past misconduct. Christ gives them more profitable work to do. 'When thou are converted,' He says to them, 'strengthen thy brethren:' cease from idle regrets over the irrevocable past, and devote thyself heart and soul to labours of love; and let it help thee to forgive thyself, that from thy very faults and follies thou mayest learn the meekness, patience, compassion, and wisdom necessary for carrying on such labours with success." pp. 477

If anything good ever comes from our lives, it will be many times through the crucible of error. I can't count the many times I have made mistakes in my life. How about you? As the years plug on, I realize how many remain through the evidences of my life which have been ingrained over tens of years. Sometimes, I note things which were  thought to be long gone suddenly pop up when I least expected them. 

I can't  tell you how much these words mean to me from Bruce: "If the good ever come, it will come through the strait gate of repentance. You can become wise, gracious, meek, sympathetic, a burden-bearer to the weak, only going out first and weeping bitterly." pp. 477.

This has often been the thought of my mind over the last few years. You see, for many years I really didn't care about what people thought of me. As the years clicked by, I began to mature in my faith and began to start evaluating what I will leave behind. If I never left anything of value, "What was my life worth to Jesus Kingdom?" Now I realize what Bruce says is so true. The only way I can ever become better in my life is to bring those things before the Lord and allow Him to forgive me; then I can forgive myself first. Then the true act of repentance allows me to turn from that old way and move forward to something positive in my own life. I no longer need to brood the things of the past, but to put forth acts of love in strengthening my fellow brothers and sisters in Christ. But things don't change unless I enter the Strait Gate; Jesus way!

In the disciples lives, they too had made quite a few mistakes. Then they realized they couldn't be better for the kingdom until their point of view had changed; and mistakes they made! But in their defense, they turned from their ways and turned their lives over to the full control of Jesus Christ. Then they turned all their efforts into acts of love toward all, and as a result they changed the world we now live in to the glory of God!