Sifting

Sifting is good!

A good shepherd will guide a wayward sheep with his rod and staff. The rod and staff are not padded! When we are wandering or going the wrong way, and God is redirecting us or disciplining us, we are going to feel a little pain from the firm rod and staff. This is not a bad thing because God is refining us! But it can be uncomfortable. God allowed Peter to be sifted, tested, purified but it was so that Peter could be prepared to be the leader that God knew He could be. Let’s look at Luke 22:31-33 New American Standard Bible:

“Simon, Simon, behold, Satan has demanded permission to sift you like wheat; but I have prayed for you, that your faith may not fail; and you, when once you have turned again, strengthen your brothers.” But he said to Him, “Lord, with You I am ready to go both to prison and to death!” And He said, “I say to you, Peter, the rooster will not crow today until you have denied three times that you know Me.”

Wait! I wanted Jesus to say NO to the sifting here, but He didn’t! …because Peter was boasting in his own strength. God knew that if Peter put his trust in his own strength, he would fall and would not be able to stand firm and lead God’s sheep. We all have to learn at some point that GOD IS OUR STRENGTH and that we cannot trust in our own strength. So SIFTING is actually not a bad thing, instead it’s the work of a loving Father-a Father who wants us to STAND FIRM. We gain more insight into how grain is sifted by looking at Amos 9:9 NASB:

For behold, I am commanding,
And I will shake the house of Israel among all nations
As grain is shaken in a sieve,
But not a kernel will fall to the ground.

How is grain shaken in a sieve? You can look it up for yourself. It is shaken VIOLENTLY. When I’ve been through trials, I have sometimes felt like I was being shaken violently. I didn’t like it! During those times, it is not easy to do, but we must choose to have faith that God still loves us, that He is still at work in us, that He knows what He is doing.

There is a song that says, “His eye is on the sparrow, and I know He watches me” (written by Civilla D. Martin, composer Charles H. Gabriel 1905). When I first heard this song, I had a picture in my mind of God catching the sparrow and keeping it from falling. This was actually a false picture of God that caused me a lot of anxiety. Whenever I or a family member went through trials, it made me doubt, because I thought God was supposed to catch us and keep us from falling at all, to keep us from going through difficulties.

We get a true picture of the sparrow when we read in the scripture Matthew 10:29-31 New King James Version:

Are not two sparrows sold for a copper coin? And not one of them falls to the ground apart from your Father’s will. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Do not fear therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows.

Did you notice that? The sparrow FELL TO THE GROUND in this scripture. It was not caught. My picture that I had formed in my mind of the sparrow being caught was not correct. I had faulty thinking. What this scripture actually says is that not one of them falls “apart from your Father’s will”. We already know about Job, that satan asked to test Job’s faith, and that God allowed it. And in this scripture about Peter, satan is asking to test Peter’s faith, and God allows it. Jesus does not tell satan “No”, instead Jesus tells Peter that He is praying for Him to stand strong in faith so He can then encourage others after He has overcome.

In Psalm 1, the psalmist describes the righteous, how they stand strong if they seek after God. Then he contrasts the wicked in Psalm 1:4 describing how chaff is removed:

The wicked are not so,
But they are like chaff which the wind drives away.

At times in our lives, God will allow the wind to blow. He will allow our lives to shake or be sifted. These times are not without purpose, but they are allowed in order to remove the things that can be removed. Yet what God has done in our lives, the work He has done to bring character in us, will not be able to removed by wind or shaking or sifting. Remember the house built on the rock in Matthew 7:24-29? It stands in the storm. But sometimes we have things in our lives that are unnecessary, they may be distractions, these things may pull our affections away from God, and so God will allow them to be blown away. He will allow us to be sifted. This is His mercy towards us! Because He wants us closer to Him!

So if you are going through a difficult time and feel that God is allowing you to be refined, please remember

HIS MERCY ALLOWS YOUR SIFTING, SO THAT YOU CAN STAND FIRM IN YOUR FAITH.

In His Love,

Suzanne