“Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift all of 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.”
Luke 22:31-32 (NIV)
Since everyone has a time of sifting in their life, the words of Jesus are comforting for all of us, not just Peter, who He was speaking to. Jesus was confident that Peter would return, by saying to him, “… and when you return, strengthen your brothers.” Jesus has confidence in each one of us. He sees everything that is happening in our lives, all the adversities that sift us and test our faith, but He believes in us because He prayed for us.
Jesus prayed, “I pray for them. I am not praying for the world, but for those you have given me, for they are yours.” (John 17:9)
That includes everyone who believes in Him.
After wheat is sifted and separated from the chaff, the wheat is poured into a container, ready for use. After being sifted, we are being launched or poured into a new container or a new era of our life, to be used by God for a greater purpose. Jesus prays for His church, every believer in the world, and because He believes in us, He leads us through new doors for a purpose that He has planned. We have all gone through an individual sifting, but a few years ago, the entire world was sifted all at once.
We have come a long way from the worst years of the Covid pandemic. People have various opinions of what the pandemic meant for the world, but I believe it was definitely used as a sifting process in every person’s life, in order to launch us into God’s greater purpose for us.
A sifter catches unwanted particles and lets only the purified particles fall through. God allowed things to be removed from our lives during Covid, so that we could turn our attention to what remained after the sifting.
There are different kinds of sifting. As flour is sifted, it separates the clumps and leaves only the smooth flour to pass through the sieve.
The sifting that separates the chaff from the wheat kernels, is a totally different kind of sifting, and requires more of a violent shaking. Jesus told His disciples that they would be sifted as wheat. In being sifted as wheat, everyone’s life was shook up in a huge way, almost violently, and that sounds like the Covid years.
Many people became frightened, angry, and confused, over Covid, they stopped attending church during those years and never returned. Some may have left from fear of getting sick and some may have lost their faith. Others have become angry, sad or depressed at the difficult circumstances that Covid brought into their lives, such as loss of employment, troubled relationships, depression or losing their loved ones to the disease.
God’s grace is always drawing us back to Him, by changing hearts, and many will return to the faith, like Peter did, because Jesus prayed for them.
For me the year before Covid was the most difficult year, because it was the year I was caring for my terminally ill husband and became a widow. The following year when Covid peaked, was a year of solitude and regathering of thoughts for me. I was furloughed from my job for a few months, which led me to spend more time reading scripture. I began writing a meditation from each day’s reading. It launched an entirely new era in my life.
We can read in John 17:15-16, what Jesus prayed for all those who would ever believe in Him:
“I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.”
Sifting helps us to recognize who we really are in God’s eyes, His confidence in us, and His good purpose for us.
Some people discovered their hidden talents, did more volunteering for charities, became caregivers, or launched personal businesses they never would have had the courage to do, if not for Covid.
We have all had something sifted within us, during the Covid era, while also discovering a deeper meaning in life and a richer blessing after the sifting.
The Covid shut downs removed the distractions, causing us to hunger for more of what is pure and good. We have since been launched into the sequel to the sifting, because we’ve learned to keep pursuing what we most hunger for, deep within, all that is pure, good and pleasing to God.
Lord, as we reminisce the past few years of sifting that some of us are still experiencing, we thank you for the new doors that will open in our lives. Help us to discover the blessings from the sifting, and open our hearts to the new direction you have for us. Purify our hearts as you continue to sift us for our good. Amen