God wants you to do His will, but you’ll never reach the place of spiritual maturity in which you’re ‘Satan-free’. You can overcome him, but you can’t eliminate him. Look at Peter. He had only one gear: overdrive. He was always in the middle of everything that was going on, but he wasn’t always on top of things. The man who ended up leading the church, first denied being a disciple of Jesus. Pretty shocking, eh? But nothing about us surprises God. He doesn’t call you and say, ‘I hope you’re the right person.’ No; Jesus told Peter, ‘Satan has demanded to sift you…like wheat; but I have prayed for you, that your faith may not fail’ (vv. 31-32 NASB). Isn’t that an amazing revelation? Even when you don’t know how to pray for yourself, Jesus is praying for you. ‘He ever liveth to make intercession for them’ (Hebrews 7:25 KJV). Jesus told Peter, ‘When you have turned back, strengthen your brothers’ (Luke 22:32 NASB). Out of the mess you’re in today can come a ministry to others. Not only can God turn your life around, He can use you to turn the lives of others around too. And one more thing: God isn’t apt to think you’re worth ‘sifting’ if you aren’t doing something right in the first place. Sifting is a method of purifying, of straining out the debris and refining what remains. That means there had to be something worth salvaging in you at the outset. Today God is calling you. Don’t waste another moment; surrender your life to Him.
