All of us have faced trials in our lives, no matter where you live or what your upbringing.  And as the days we live in grow more evil by the day, often we find ourselves asking others to pray for us.  And that’s good!  None of us are an island to ourselves, but we are interconnected, both with God, and to our brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus.  There’s an old saying: a chain is only as strong as its weakest link.  Sometimes our particular link in the chain of things is not as strong as we would like to think it is, and it’s nice to know the Lord Jesus is interceding to His heavenly Father for us.
 Let me give you an example from Luke 22:31-34:
And the Lord said, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat:
But I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not: and when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren.
And he said unto him, Lord, I am ready to go with thee, both into prison, and to death.
And he said, I tell thee, Peter, the cock shall not crow this day, before that thou shalt thrice deny that thou knowest me.
   Jesus saw a weakness that Peter didn’t even know he had.  Jesus revealed that Satan wanted to “sift” Peter as wheat.  If you know anything about sifting, you will know that if you sift flour, you are placing it in a very tight spot and forcing it to pass through an even smaller space than it did before, making the flour even smaller and finer.  I don’t think any one of us wakes up in the morning and says, Hey, Lord, do you think Satan has time to fit me in for a sifting today?.   Peter thought he was solid, walked on the water, you know.  And he was the only one of the twelve disciples that was ever recorded as doing so.  If anyone had faith, it had to be Peter, right?  He was obviously pretty sure of himself.   He probably forgot that he got his eyes off the Lord and saw the storm raging around him, and started to sink, and Jesus had to rescue him.
   Have you ever stepped off the side of a swimming pool and BEGAN to sink?  But nonetheless, how many of us today can say we’ve walked on the water, except when it’s frozen?  I rest my case.   Like a lot of us, Peter thought he was ready for anything, even unto the point of dying for the Lord Jesus, however, Jesus didn’t seem to think so, but get this:  Jesus prayed for Peter.   Do you see that?  Jesus prayed for Peter, that his faith would not fail!  I can just hear Peter’s reply: Well, Jesus, you must be mistaken.  Sure you’re not talking about Doubting Thomas over there?  But sure enough, before the cock crowed, Peter had already denied knowing Jesus three times!  Thank God it wasn’t “Three strikes and yer out!”  If it was, a lot of us would be in deep doo-doo.
    You see, the Lord knew Peter much better than he knew himself.  He not only knew Peter’s weaknesses, but He knew his strengths as well.  Don’t you know, the Lord will strengthen the weak, and the strong He will make stronger still.  Jesus had called him Simon Peter, meaning, “a reed”, better known as “Peter the Pitiful”.  But God isn’t about losing, so you can rest assured that He will work toward making sure His kids aren’t losers either.  Jesus found Peter as a reed, but He didn’t plan on leaving him in that sorry estate.  In fact, Jesus went on to say, Thou shalt be called Cephas, which is by interpretation, a stone.  Sometimes I wonder if Jesus meant that Peter was hard headed?  Anyway, what changed Peter from a reed to a stone in strength?  Jesus prayed for him!  As we read more about Peter in the scriptures, we see that because Jesus prayed for him, that Peter the Pitiful afterwards became Peter the Powerful.
 Moving on.  The Apostle Paul wrote in Hebrews 7:25 Wherefore He is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by Him, seeing He ever liveth to make intercession for them.  Exactly who is Jesus interceding for these days, seeing He lives forever?  YOU AND ME!! 
 When you’re feeling like the whole world is caving in around you, when nothing is going right, when your kids won’t come home, or when your mother-in-law won’t go home, you’re running out of money before you run out of month, I have good news for you: Jesus prayed for you.  And I promise you something, Jesus got his prayers answered then, and He gets His prayers answered now!  I don’t know if you’ve ever given that much thought, but if not, you need to.  The next time the devil is trying to sift you as wheat, remember Peter, lift your head up, square your shoulders and tell him,
JESUS PRAYED FOR ME!