[Another] means by which you are kept from falling is the intercession of Christ himself. Christ prays for his people. And so, on the night that our Lord was betrayed, he spoke to Simon Peter and said, Simon, Simon, Satan hath desire to have thee, that he may sift you as wheat, but I have prayed for thee that thy faith fail not. And that night, though Peter denied our Lord and suffered a bruising fall, it was not an absolute and utter fall, for Christ had prayed that his faith fails not. And through the experience, rather than Peter's faith failing, it was fortified—it was strengthened, and he came out weeping bitterly for his sin. He had been brought to a place of repentance and remorse for his denial of Christ. He came out of the experience to become the primary spokesman of the early church on the day of Pentecost.¹  

John McKnight