A Sifted Life

An Explanation

When I decided to take the plunge and put my love of words to use, I got excited.  I started looking through a few things I’d already privately written and thought about how I could use them for devotionals.  I thought of topics and stages of life and different circumstances we all face that I could dive into.  I didn’t start to get worried until I had to think of a title.  I knew I wanted it to have a double meaning.  I knew I wanted it to represent all the different categories I’d already thought of.  I knew I wanted it to be catchy.  I sat with a blank page for about 10 minutes.  Then I went to my ‘go to’ method of creative thinking:  the alphabet.  Letter by letter, I thought of cute, quipy phrases that piqued my interest.  Then I had a small voting party among a handful of friends.  And it was decided.

So what does “A Sifted Life” mean?  I think the first thing I thought of was flour.  Have you ever seen packed flour?  You can’t just dump it into a bowl and expect the batter to be mixed evenly.  You’ve got to give it room to spread out; so bakers sift dry ingredients in order to break up any lumps.  I liked all that, but I wanted to get an exact definition of the word.  When I read that it is the “separating of the fine from the coarse” (as noted above in my page description), I knew I had the right title.  A sifted life is taking the fine, precious, interesting, useful moments and pieces of information that get lost in the living and separating them from the coarse, common, ugly, and useless annoyances that steal our attention and energy.  A sifted life is taking the lumps and working them out into something smooth. 

In Luke 22:31, it says, “And The Lord said, ‘Simon, Simon, behold, Satan has desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat.’” (Notice the flour reference there?)  This is the moment Jesus warns Peter that he will deny knowing Christ three times before the rooster crows.  Jesus is telling him, “Things are about to get bad, but you need to know it’s not me doing it.  You need to know the enemy is coming to attack you and it’s going to be uncomfortable, humiliating, painful, ugly, confusing, worrisome, and unfair.”  But then Jesus says, “but I have prayed for you, that your faith may not fail; and when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers” (verse 32).  Jesus says, “I’m on your side!  I’ve prayed for you that your faith in me will be enough to see you through the sifting.  That no matter how alone you feel, no matter how hopeless you feel, you will know the truth of My love and turn to Me.  And after that, you will be strong for your brothers and sisters who are struggling and need to turn to Me.”

Last week, I had a bad day.  I mean a pity-party-no-one-understands-or-cares-why-is-it-always-me kind of bad day.  It was ugly.  From the outside, I had every right to be upset.  Someone else said something rude and then it was followed up by another person saying something even nastier.  I just happened to be the one close enough to take the abuse.  But instead of going to The Lord, I took it to heart.  I sat in that stupor for about six hours.  I cried and I pouted and I looked at all the faults those people had and thought about what I’d like to say to them and what I would say to them if they dared look at me the wrong way.  It was a miserable time of lumping my hurt into a ball of frustration and bitterness and I didn’t care. 

And then the sifting began.  Despite my total lack of desire to get up and move on, the Father called to my heart.  He moved me to look at the mess I’d made of my mind and my day.  He pointed out that my wallowing wasn’t solving anything, but only making it worse.  It had made me rough to be around and was encroaching on my family relationships.  Did I mention it was the day before Christmas Eve?  The Holy Spirit began to move around the hurt places and gently shed light onto them.  He showed me the hurt in the other people, showing me they had been offended, which in turn made them offenders.  And I was very close to becoming an offender because of their offenses to me. He revealed to me a moment in time that I could create a very precious gift for my family if I would allow Him to be my focus instead.

Turning to The Lord after an attack - That is a sifted life.

Letting The Lord soften our hearts - That is a sifted life.

Finding the gift of joy in a moment of pain – That is a sifted life.

Sometimes the sifting is the wretched lash of the enemy – who is constantly on the prowl to destroy us in any manner.  Sometimes the sifting is through the Holy Spirit – who wants to turn our minds from human to holy.  And sometimes the sifting is just needing to see the blessing of the moment instead of missing the moment.  Without The Lord, we are far from fine. We are lumpy, compacted, firm, hard, unmixable. Our hearts are focused on flesh instead of faith, emotion instead of empathy, unfair instead of unimportant.

Is there anything in your life that has felt like sifting?  Has it been an attack from the enemy?  Was it revelation from The Lord?

So what now?  Sometimes the revelation of the sifting can be devastating.  Peter was horrified when he realized what he’d done by denying Christ.  But he remembered Jesus’ prayer, and he returned to The Lord and strengthened his fellow disciples and followers.  If you have been sifted, do not let it be another burden on your heart.  Let it be the answer to Christ’s prayer for you:  let it bring you back to full relationship with Jesus.  Let it be an encouragement to those around you.  Let it bring glory to the Father. 

For that is a sifted life.