During his last supper with his disciples, Christ Jesus said (Luke 22: 31, 32), "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." The Gospels show the working of evil in Simon Peter's thought by relating his denial of Jesus (see Luke 22:54-62), and they show the reformation that followed.
Jesus forgave Peter, and must have prayed effectively for him and destroyed the malicious suggestions that influenced him, for after Jesus' ascension a contrite Peter became a devoted and dependable follower of the Master. The book of Acts relates Peter's faithful labor to spread the teachings of Jesus and to strengthen the brethren.
Christian Science offers the antidote for the mesmeric efforts of Satan or the carnal mind that seem universally rampant. It teaches its students how to discern evil's intentions and machinations and how to defeat them and prove them powerless.
