Luk 22:31 And the Lord said, Simon, Simon, behold,
Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat:
Luk 22:32 But I have prayed for thee, that thy faith
fail not: and when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren.
Like Simon, Satan
desires to have ANYONE who dares claim the Lord for their Savior in a very
real, living, active way. Satan would love to sift us as wheat.
How is wheat sifted?
'Manual Threshing
The first step
in the process of sifting wheat is to loosen the chaff from the edible grain,
which is called threshing. The old-fashioned way to do this is to spread the
wheat onto a floor made from stone, concrete or tamped earth and to beat it
with a flail. This is no longer done in the developed world. But in some places
where machines are expensive and human labor is cheap, manual threshing is
still common. From <http://www.ehow.com/how-does_4925686_farmers-sift-wheat.html>
'
'Hand threshing was
laborious, with a bushel of
wheat taking about an hour.[3] In
the late 18th century, before threshing was mechanized, about one-quarter of
agricultural labor was devoted to it.[4]From <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Threshing>
'
'Threshing
(thrashing) was originally "...'to tramp or stamp heavily with the
feet'..." and was later applied to the act of separating out grain by the
feet of people or oxen and still later with the use of a flail.[2] A threshing
floor is of two main types: 1) a specially flattened outdoor surface, usually
circular and paved,[3] or 2) inside a building with a smooth floor of earth,
stone or wood where a farmer would thresh the grain harvest and then winnow it.
Animal and steam powered threshing machines from the nineteenth century onward
made threshing floors obsolete. The outdoor threshing floor was either owned by
the entire village or by a single family, and it was usually located outside
the village in a place exposed to the wind.
Sifted as
wheat. Wheat was beaten, stomped on,
laboriously processed in order to get to the edible portion. Satan sifting a
person as wheat is to BEAT them, STOMP them laboriously, and very actively
abuse them trying to separate them from the love of God!
Satan is REAL and he
will torment us spiritually every opportunity he gets. Satan will use things we least expect him to
attack us with. How can he use a sweet innocent child, or a mentally
debilitated elderly person to attack us? Truthfully? He's not able to use them,
he is using OUR failure to surrender to our Savior fully, in order to goad us
spiritually to reacting toward that child and elder from a self-centered
standpoint. A selfish standpoint that fills us with indignation, with ire, we
something we believe is self-preservation. Then he calls on us to justify our
failure by any means necessary- you were tired, you were hungry, you were
scared, you were sad, you were upset all very good reasons we allow for bad
behavior. As if we'd somehow manage to rise above the same situation should we
be well rested, not hungry, unafraid, happy, and not in the least bit upset.
Isn't it really true that we are allowing Satan to abuse us in all manner of
unexpected and unwanted situations by letting his spirit reign in us? Have you
ever not reacted in what we call a typical manner- to a rather unpleasant, even
dire situation? People sort of expect others to 'act out' not to seek the peace
giving faith of thrusting Jesus' love instantly into the bad situation. How can we do that-- we cry out, when our
hearts are breaking, our spirits are on fire with the offense before us and our
instant response is that volatile outburst.
And the chain of events started continue with our despair over our
response, and our dwelling upon our bad behavior, lamenting our selfishness and
often seeking to find that ready excuse for ourselves.
Wretched people,
that's what we are! We are wretched. And if we do place our hope in ourselves,
we are completely lost! If we place our hope in ANY other than Christ, anyone
else at all, we are LOST!
Our hope must be in
Christ to save us from our wretched, wretched selves.
We need to EXAMINE
ourselves, not just despair over our actions. We need to question ourselves,
ask ourselves why we reacted as we did? Why, truly… WHY!?
Did we feel put out
in some way? Did our thoughts instantly begin to berate a person who slighted
us, who dared to impose upon us unexpectedly in what we believe is unjustly? Do
we look down upon those who Satan uses to expose our very real, very awful selfish
ways? Do we detest them and blame them for our own selfishness? As if we
wouldn't be selfish if they'd just left us completely alone and did what WE
perceive to be their own thing without engaging us.
Satan set's us up
and no, he doesn't always use an innocent child, or older person, he uses
anyone he can. He even uses the self-glorified ungodly person against us. He
wants us to be able to try and justify our self-centered actions by blaming the
other person's obvious defiance of God.
The 'if only' begins
to push their way into our
justification- if only this were a different way, if only that wasn't like it
is, then I WOULD BE DIFFERENT. Maybe you
would be, or maybe you wouldn't be- it doesn't matter. What matters is what IS
and in whatever the situation we react as if we are in the presence of God,
because we ARE!
If we need a special
something or other to be in the presence of God, then we are in trouble!
Because life will NOT stop for us to prepare ourselves. We must be praying
always, we must be in God's presence always! We must allow for any routine we
have to be blown to bits, because Satan is alive and well and our selfishness
equally, and very sadly is alive and well also.
Our dependence upon God must be there in ALL situations, from the worse
to the best. We may be allowed a
glorious growth in what we perceive is our spiritual life, and we might then
expect that glorious growth, that routine, that pattern, that way to continue
on indefinitely, but LIFE doesn't allow for that and anyone who tells you it
does isn't a person who is growing, but settled into a deceptively stagnant way
of life which Satan loves and allows. We
are to be TRIED in the FIRE, not settled into the warm, relaxing bath
water.
What needs to be the
ONLY constant in our lives is our dependence upon CHRIST in all our situations
no matter what they might be. We must
seek that dependence while our lives are filled with upheaval, and if God desires
our growth to continue in a former manner that has been drastically disrupted,
then after our trial by fire, it will return.
Until the time of its return we have to cling to Christ and the hope we
have in Him as the waves of the spiritual storm threaten to drown us, as the
fire threatens to sear us, char us to the bone and turn us to ash.
May each and every
attack by Satan be a chance for spiritual GROWTH, not spiritual dampening in
each and every one of.
Jesus has PRAYED for
us!
May our faith fail
not!
All by His amazing
grace, His love, His mercy, His righteousness, all in HIM
Amen.
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