God's Sifting Season

Luke 22:31-34, "Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift you as wheat. But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers." But he replied, "Lord, I am ready to go with you to prison and to death." Jesus answered, "I tell you, Peter, before the rooster crows today, you will deny three times that you know me."
The sifting season, that one can be hard. There were so many times in my young life that I was "ready". I wanted to go out and help others. But, I was not ready. It is during the sifting season that all the impurities and the dead stalks are removed. It is during this time that we discover our true faith. It is during this time that we begin learning to lay aside our thoughts and start turning to Jesus for what we are really supposed to do.

Peter thought he was ready. He was ready for a fight, but he was still unaware of what Jesus was really wanting. He was still blind to the full realities of what was happening. In his impulsiveness, he was ready to fight. He had not been thoroughly sifted yet. It was in seeing his weakness and discovering how much he did not know, that he became ready for the battle ahead. Only, it was a battle he never dreamed would come, in the way that it did. He was expecting a physical battle, Christ has prepared us for a spiritual battle. A battle we must fight every day. A battle not with others, but with Satan. James 1:14, "Temptation comes from the lure of our own evil desires." The sifting that He has asked us to partake in, is a sifting that happens every day. If we are continually looking at other's sins, we are missing our own. If we are continually looking at our past sin, we are missing the present. The first thing we must do everyday, is to allow God to sift us. In opening ourselves up first, then we are ready for the fight. In opening ourselves up, we can see how much we need Him.

Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be ready for the daily battle; Belt of Truth, Shoes of Peace, Shield of Faith, Helmet of Salvation, Sword of the Spirit. (Eph 6) Every day we must walk through the threshing floor, so that our own impurities may be removed. After we have been sifted, we put on our armor, and go out to help others during their sifting. We are to continually wave our hands toward heaven and allow the winds of God to blow away our death, so that He can be a light of life to others through us.

Oswald Chambers, "It is only when God has transformed our nature and we have entered into the experience of sanctification that the fight begins. The warfare is not against sin; we can never fight against sin— Jesus Christ conquered that in His redemption of us. The conflict is waged over turning our natural life into a spiritual life. This is never done easily, nor does God intend that it be so. It is accomplished only through a series of moral choices. God does not make us holy in the sense that He makes our character holy. He makes us holy in the sense that He has made us innocent before Him. And then we have to turn that innocence into holy character through the moral choices we make. These choices are continually opposed and hostile to the things of our natural life which have become so deeply entrenched— the very things that raise themselves up as fortified barriers "against the knowledge of God." We can either turn back, making ourselves of no value to the kingdom of God, or we can determinedly demolish these things, allowing Jesus to bring another son to glory (see Hebrews 2:10).

Are you ready for battle? Do you see what the battle is, in your own life? Are you willing to go through the sifting of sin, every day? If you are, then you are ready to go out and help others.

http://www.rbc.org/devotionals/my-utmost-for-his-highest/09/08/devotion.aspx?year=2009