Sifting to Shifting by Bryan Craig

“Simon, Simon, behold, Satan demanded to have you, that he might sift you like wheat, but I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned again, strengthen your brothers.”  Luke 22:31-32

I love the precepts of The Journey that have been discovered and shared year after year.  They never grow old or seem outdated, for they are God’s Word, which is living and active and new every morning.  And the section, “Enabled” continues to give me a grid or a lens through which to process everyday life.

First, I can start with Psalm 139:23-24, a great prayer of examination:

“Search me, O God, and know my heart!  Try me and know my thoughts!  And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!”

Most mornings, my journaling starts with an account of what is going on in life, the good, the bad, the ugly, as I process what’s going on around me and what’s unsettling me or inspiring me.  That gives me a baseline to invite the Holy Spirit in for examination and counsel, and I start to apply God’s Word to my life.

If I’m experiencing some pain in whatever form, I need to make sure there’s not “willful sin” in my life.  If so, that sin must go or the pain will not go.  It all starts here.

Then, if there is no apparent willful sin, and I’m still feeling pain, there must be something else going on.  This is where the concept of “pruning” comes in.  According to Jesus’ own words in John 15, God (The Gardener) will prune is if we are bearing His fruit, so that we may be even more fruitful.  So, even though the pruning shears are sharp and painful, we are to consider it joy that we are doing something right.  This is counterintuitive and very hard to accept in our flesh, so it requires spiritual maturity.  As we try to grasp what God might be trying to prune away, things that are not “willful sin”, it can be elusive.  Bruce Wilkinson sums it up, saying,

“God disciplines us to get rid of sin.  He prunes us to get rid of self.”  

Unfortunately, deciphering this pruning process sometimes takes a very long time, and often, we don’t even realize it’s happening until we look back on a season of life where we experienced a strange darkness or pain.  This is definitely the case with this Spiritual Growth season, called Sifting.

The concept of Sifting is not mentioned much in Scripture.  The most famous is the verse, Luke 22:31-32, where Jesus warns Peter that he is going to be sifted by Satan himself.  Peter is shocked, saying he was ready to go with Jesus to prison or even death.  He appears strong and steady, yet Jesus tells him he will deny knowing him, not once, but three times, that very night. And if you continue reading the Gospels, you will see that Peter did, in fact, deny knowing Jesus, in the fear and aftermath of Jesus’ horrible arrest and impending trial.  And Peter was remorseful, ashamed, humiliated, embarrassed.

So what do we learn about Sifting:

I have been reading the story of Job recently, and I think this is the first time I have fully understood that Job, too, was sifted.  Like Peter, it was a work of Satan, allowed by God, that was painful and harsh and caused Job to nearly lose faith.  Job tries and tries to make sense of his loss and suffering, trying to see where He had gone wrong.  Little did he know, God considered him one of the most righteous men on earth.   Job’s friends didn’t help much, as they, too, accused Job of wrongdoing, believing he must have brought this on himself.  They were wrong.  Their accusations and betrayal seemed to be part of the sifting.

In both Peter and Job’s case, things didn’t get better until there was a Shift in their perspective.  When Peter repented of his denial and re-pledged his love for Jesus, things began to shift in his heart.  When Job accepted his pain and the fact that he might not understand the “why,” and he began to pray for his accusing friends, a major shift happened in his heart and in his circumstances.  

I’ve been through some Sifting myself, even recently, and I’m re-learning the lessons.  The more I surrender to the Sifting and abandon the desire to discover the “why,” the more peace and joy and strength come into my life.  

We were talking about the concepts of Pruning and Sifting in my Couples Journey group the other night.  One of the ladies described a Gardening Pruning video she had seen and how  a plant that has been severely pruned can look decimated.  She said something about only 3 buds being left on the branch that had been pruned.  In the moment, as I was considering my own sifting, I realized that in sifting, you can feel decimated.  

But as I thought of the 3 buds remaining, the Holy Spirit took my mind to 1 Corinthians 13 and the last verse (13) “Now faith, hope and love remain (or abide).”  Never before had I drawn this connection, but it became clear to me.

No matter how sharp the pruning or sifting, no matter how defeated and broken we may feel, these 3 things will never be taken away from us…  Faith, Hope and Love.  If He can strip us down to where these 3 things remain, He can build a tremendous harvest out of our life upon this foundation.  

So, no matter what you are going through on this abiding journey, be encouraged.  The Father, the Gardener, has a Master plan, and if you feel tempted to have a pity-party, remember Job and Peter and also, remember Jesus:

Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted. In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons?

“My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord,
    nor be weary when reproved by him.
 For the Lord disciplines the one he loves,
    and chastises every son whom he receives.”  Hebrews 12:3-6