After sharing my heart with my husband, he asked me, “Why do you keep wrestling with that? Why are you always back and forth?”
Good question.
I was sharing with him about my dreams– specifically about how I could see them like a distant shore. The problem was I was on this side of a great gulf and my dreams were within sight but not within reach. It was hard to explain but I could see the morning sun rising on the other side. I didn’t quite know what was over there, I just knew in my heart that’s where I need to get.
His question was valid because I’ve pursued God’s will for my life and ministry for years. You’d think I would have it nailed down by now, but the truth is, I don’t think we ever “arrive” (not fully anyway). For this reason, I’ve made it my aim and desire to simply pursue God and always keep my heart in the right direction.
To my surprise, a few days later the Holy Spirit answered his questions for me with one verse. All I heard in my spirit was: “Satan has asked for you, that he may sift you as wheat.” On the surface, this might sound intimidating but it wasn’t at all. In fact, I kind of laughed and thought, “Well, Satan doesn’t understand the power of sifting.”
When I was little, I watched my grandmother sift flour before baking. She explained that sifting the flour created a finer substance and made her baked items less dense. The word sift means to separate or sort out what is useful or valuable. And that’s why I laughed at the devil.
Satan wanted to sift Simon Peter but Jesus told him, “I have prayed for you, that your faith should not fail; and when you have returned to Me, strengthen your brethren” (Luke 22:31-32). Jesus knew that on the other side of the pulling and stretching and tossing and mashing, Peter would be stronger– everything that didn’t belong would be sifted out and only what was valuable would be left.
My husband recognized the tossing in my life, but it wasn’t because I’m double-minded. It’s because that’s what sifting looks like. When flour is being sifted, it is dumped into a fine-meshed strainer and then by tapping the sides, the flour is gradually sifted through.
Now think about your life.
Where people miss it (and I’ve done this) is they think the ups and downs and struggles in their life mean they’ve missed God somewhere. This can certainly be the reason and we should always pause and pray to ask God, but many times, it’s not that we’ve gotten off-course; the struggles you and I feel is the sifting.
Charles Spurgeon once said, “Consider how precious a soul must be when both God and the devil are after it.”
Ephesians 2:10 says we are God’s “workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.” We belong to God. He has plans and purposes for our lives that are dropped in our heart as dreams and desires. Satan is God’s enemy (and ours) and his goal is to pervert the plans of God. The tug-of-war we feel at times is the fight between heaven and hell. And unless you quit and give up, I promise heaven will win!
As I enter 2024, I am encouraged over the vision God gave me. My husband thought I should already be on the other side but I’m not discouraged at all. I feel like I’m closer than I’ve ever been. And I want to encourage you on your journey– wherever you are on the path of fulfilling God’s plans for your life, don’t stop. Don’t let the pulling and stretching and tossing and mashing you feel at times discourage you. God has his hand on you. He will see to it that you come out on the other side more useful.
In fact, the Bible says God wants us to be “vessels of honor, sanctified and useful for the Master, prepared for every good work” (2 Timothy 2:21).
May this reminder keep your eyes on the prize. God isn’t the author of pain, trauma, sickness, or disease. He is our Redeemer and Giver of Life. He takes what the enemy meant for evil, and He uses it for good. He redeems our life from destruction and crowns us with loving kindness (Psalm 103). And the plans He has for us are good– “plans of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope” (Jeremiah 29:11).
In the new year, I pray you’ll keep these truths close to your heart as you watch the Lord fulfill His Word in your life— I know I will be.
