There are some things we believe in our lives that are just lies, flat out. I hear people lie about themselves all day, everyday. My hair is natural, and I often hear people tell me, ‘I don’t have hair like you, my hair is too nappy to wear natural.’ As I attempt to clean up my diet and health, people say, ‘ I can’t eat healthy, I need to eat greasy food everyday.’ I often hear men say things like…’I'm just a pimp or a thug, that’s who I am I can’t change.’ Well, who told you that these things and attitudes were correct?
Satan, the author of lies, tells people everyday that there is something about leading a healthy, peaceful life in a walk with Jesus Christ is unattainable. I think the enemy loves it when we use our cloudy emotions or past failures to justify being stagnant.
In Luke 22:31-32 Jesus says:
And the Lord said, “Simon, Simon! Indeed, Satan has asked for you, that he may sift you as wheat. But I have prayed for you, that your faith should not fail; and when you have returned to Me, strengthen your brethren.”
When I hear that, I get an image in my head of grain being shaken through a strainer, separating the larger pieces from smaller ones. Believe it or not, I don’t have much experience with how grain and wheat is produced (that’s a joke), so I did some research:
Manual Threshing
Manual threshingThe first step in 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 not, manual threshing is still common.
Winnowing
The next step is called winnowing, where the loosened chaff is removed from the grain. The old fashioned way of doing this was to throw the grain in the air, where the lighter chaff would be blown off by even a decent breeze. The heavier grains would fall back to the ground below where they were thrown. Read more: How Do Farmers Sift Wheat? | eHow.comhttp://www.ehow.com/how-does_4925686_farmers-sift-wheat.html#ixzz1FsSnIX2Q
So Satan desired to mentally beat the crap out of the disciples until they lose their faith. And he chose one of the hardest times of their lives, when their beloved leader Jesus would be crucified, to inflict his plan.
People believe the lies of the enemy daily, and in that process he is sifting people like wheat. He tells people everyday that they are ugly, stupid, unworthy, unloveable, unteachable, destined to be a slave to certain sins and habits their whole lives. I am confident in many areas of my life, but I have insecurities and low points that replay in my head at the most inopportune times that cause me not to try. Some people can’t even imagine their lives different from their current dysfunction. That cycle of mental pain is equal to be sifted, I think.
In what ways might you be tossed and torn about in anguish? Is your diet causing your demise? Are certain attitudes about yourself causing your life not to be abundant? Let’s pray for ourselves and one another that we can maintain our faith and love in God during trials and be willing to address those attitudes in our lives that cause us to continually fail.
Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.
James 4:7
