Prayed for Thee

He prayed, and it did not work. That is the honest complaint against this verse. Jesus says he has prayed for Peter, and within hours Peter is in a courtyard telling a servant girl and two others that he has never met the man, keeping it up until a cock crows and Jesus turns and looks at him.

Now read the request itself. Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat. The you there is plural in the Greek and the King James prints the difference: the whole table has been asked for. Then the prayer narrows to one man. But I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not. He asks that the faith not go out, and the next clause has the collapse already built into it: and when thou art converted, when you have turned back round, strengthen thy brethren. Peter is handed a job for afterwards before he has done the thing he will need to come back from. You will have your own courtyard, and what this verse offers you there is a request made about you by somebody still making it, since Hebrews says he ever liveth to make intercession for them. John records how it finished on a beach: three questions, one for each denial.

Hold my faith on the night I cannot hold it myself. I have made Peter's speech about prison and death, sincerely, and I have no idea what I would say to a stranger by a fire. Ask for me what you asked for him, and let the thing underneath stay lit while I am sifted. Then give me the work you gave him afterwards, because I would rather be sent back to my brethren than left alone with what I found out about myself.

Daily Manna runs on a two-year cycle. The year one reading for day 269 is Through the Valley (Psalm 23:4).

All 365 readings in Daily Manna, Year Two