Satan's Sifting

I grew up on a farm.  My dad row cropped farm items like wheat, corn, soybeans, and peanuts.  I am so thankful that we had the blessing of owning a harvester combine for our crops.  Before modern-day machines were developed, farmers had to harvest crops by carrying out a series of labor intensive tasks one after another. First they had to cut down the plants with a long-handled cutting tool such as a scythe. Next, they had to separate the edible grain from the inedible chaff by beating the cut stalks—an operation known as threshing. Finally, they had to clean any remaining debris away from the seeds to make them suitable for use in a mill. All this took a lot of time and a lot of people.

Growing up, when we were ready to harvest our crops, we simply took our big harvester combine out to the fields and it took one person to drive the machine and the machine did all the work.  However, what goes on inside that harvester is violent.  There are pincers on the front of the harvester that help pinch the crops up so that they can be cut at the base by a cutting bar that runs the entire width of the harvester.  On that cutting bar there are teeth that open and close that help cut the crops up at their base.  Behind the cutter bars are these augurs that push the crops to the conveyor that takes the stalks to the middle of the machine.  A threshing drum beats and beats the crops to shake away the grain from the stalks with then falls into a container underneath.  The chaff or unwanted pieces are pushed toward the back of the machine where it eventually falls out the back of the machine.  When the container is full of grain, a tractor with a trailer pulls up beside the harvester and an elevator takes the grain from the container and shoots it quite quickly out of a pipe on the side of the harvester.

Whether you harvested grain in Biblical days or whether you harvest grain today, the outcome is the same.  The grain goes through much cutting, beating, and spinning before it is ready to be used.  The process is tedious!  This is what Jesus said Satan desired to do to Simon, “to sift you like wheat.”  The word you in this verse is plural.  Make no mistake Satan desires to do the same to you.

Exactly how does Satan sift us like wheat?  

--He beats us down.  He persuades us that we are not worthy or we are more worthy than what we are. He allows wise, close friends to speak untruths to us or hurt us unintentionally.    He gives interests that conflict with being with other believers and isolates us.  He puts conflict with others in our heart so that unity is broken. He whispers untruths in our hearts and convinces us to believe them.  

--He cuts us where it hurts.  He knows the things that are important to us and is proficient at taking them away.  Things such as jobs, our loved ones, our health, our wealth, our possessions, our friends, our guitar strings, and even our well laid out plans for life are all items that Satan often takes away.

--He spins us around until we don’t which direction we are facing.  At times, so many things are happening in our life at one time that we can’t catch our breath.  We utter words like, Jesus give me a break or when it rains it pours.  Satan is proficient at causing calamity after calamity after calamity in our lives.  Broken vehicles, work/school projects, the sink starts leaking, the freezer catches on fire, the washing machine breaks, the ice maker floods your kitchen and ruins your floors, the doorknob falls off the door are all simple mishaps but when there are numerous mishaps spinning around you at the same time, eventually you can’t see through the chaos and then Satan has you where he wants you.

Why does Satan desire to sift us?

--He wants to wound us.  If he can sideline us, then we aren’t a part of advancing God’s kingdom here on earth.

--He desires to silence us.  If we are not boasting of what the Lord has done and is doing in our lives, then we aren’t discipling others.

--He is looking to destroy our faith.  If we are convinced that God isn’t faithful, that God’s plans are not best, or that God is not good then we simply have NO desire to live for Jesus nor share Christ’s love with others.

1. How have you been beaten down?
2. Where have you been hurt?

Jesus wants to heal your wounds.  He longs to build you up.  He is praying for you!