“I….I…” Trying to wrack my mind for words to explain our past season to my husband…
“I feel like we’ve been through a blender.”
Yes. That was it. Mentally, physically, emotionally, in relationships. Like a wirlwind had wrapped itself around our home and was spinning us towards sharp blades, destined to destroy us.
Worse yet, we’ve been around this bend, tread around this mountain, time and time again; same people, same situations, same antagonists prodding and egging, tormenting and arrogantly proclaming…
While we sit like victims, helpless, begging like the poor widow for crumbs from some unjust judge….
- We are hungry and know it.
- We are needy, it is no secret.
- We are beggars pleading with The One who brought water from hard rock in the desert in Egypt.
I purchased Elizabeth Elliot: Joyful Surrender recently. She was the wife of Jim Elliot, who served a people who eventually speared him to death on the sands of the land he had hoped to minister to, in Ecuador.
She didn’t run from persecution. She didn’t flea, cower or hide is self-pity…offended by a people who killed her dearest possession…
Elizabeth Elliot ran towards her offenders. How would life change if we did that too?
She placed herself once again in the very hands of the Waorani (Auca) tribe, intentionally looking straight into the eyes of her husband’s murderers….
But instead of blaming….she loved. How might our world change if we just loved?
Instead of rising in hate to slay in vengence those who left her daughter without a father…
She embraced, gripped and accepted those same people in faith, evenually paving the way for the convertion of a murderous tribe, into the Kingdom.
And yet, I spin…
Spin in this blender of disgust and persecution. I unravel, cry out for mercy, and beg this journey to end.
In fact, I have pleaded with Jesus, who is not unjust…but a righteous judge.
It wasn’t until I opened to Luke 22:31…God spoke to this situation:
“Simon, Simon, listen! Satan has demanded permission to sift[all of] you like grain; but I have prayed [especially] for you, that your faith [and confidence in Me] may not fail; and you, once you have turned back again [to Me], strengthen and support your brothers[in the faith].”
I must have read this verse a thousand times previously, but today it stuck out to me like the sharp edge peirced in Jim Elliot’s chest.
I read, God gave Satan permission to sift Peter? (I imagined the word “sift” replaced with “blend”)
Could it be, God gives the enemy permission even, to sift ME? YOU?
Doesn’t Ecclesiates say, nothing is new under the sun?
Yes, oh how I can relate to Peter. The passion, the persistence, the devotion….but ESPECIALLY the sifting.
Then I read the passage again, Jesus was interceeding for Peter, just like He is interceeding for ME….for YOU.
I read in the Greek and find the word “you” in the top line of the top of Luke 22:31 meaning a collection of His people.
God didn’t sift Peter alone. God allowed a handful of his people to be sifted along with him.
Maybe that’s you today? Maybe you can say you have joined me in a season of blender-type sifting…
Have you experienced spinning and twisting, turning, winding, not knowing when or even “if” the mountain we have prayed for will come down like He promised?
At the same time, in that sifting God actually allowed, it’s crazy to think, Jesus gave Peter the call….”to strengthen others” amidst it all.
Is strengthening others the “fruit” of OUR suffering? Seems kind of obsurd, doesn’t it?
Yet friends, isn’t it often in the midst of our hardships, when we feel most self-pity? When we are burned, hurt, tormented or offended….isn’t it then….the LAST thing we want to do is strengthen others?
Yet, this was Jesus’ plan in the midst of Peter’s suffering. And it’s His call to us today, wherever we are on our journey….
- Strengthen and support others.
- Our trials are meant to be testimonies.
- Our sufferings are called to be sweet fragrances that refresh our fellow Christians.
So, what if we did that…what if “I” focused outward amidst MY suffering, instead of looked inward, wallowing in despair or self-pity?
What if like Elizabeth Elliot, I went straight INTO the battle, found the most needy, turned my focus outward and strengthened THEM amist my pain and hurting?
How might the world change if we all did this, despite what we were feeling or experiencing?
Instead of lashing, belittling, attacking, offering criticism, gossip or sarcasm….what if we actually encouraged, strengthened and supported one another?
Tweet ThisThose words pierce me.
But then, I read deeper.
When Jesus told Peter He was allowing Satan to sift him like grain, I just 
assumed God must be mean….
But then, I “got” it.
Jesus doesn’t call Peter, Peter. In the verse above, Jesus calls Peter, “Simon.”
Simon is the name of Peter’s OLD nature. It was the name of the man Jesus found along the water fishing….The fleshly, carnal man, Jesus later appointed as one of His disciples.
But friends…and please get this….when Simon’s heart changed and He was submissed to that call as a disciples, Jesus changed Simon’s name to Peter.
Peter represents the new man. Peter was the God-given identity Christ built His church on.
- Peter is the one that led that call to repentence in the upper room.
- Peter stood and ushered in the Holy Spirit.
- Peter ministered the truth of Jesus, in mighty and powerful ways.
- Peter WAS the man Jesus built His church on.
Peter is Simon’s NEW identity.
But, in the passage above, Jesus says He is sifting “Simon”, Peter’s old nature, not his new nature.
And friends, when this struck me, and I began understanding, God was sifting my OLD nature too….He didn’t just want, but allowed hardships so I could be more purified and like Christ.
It was then, I let go of this radical determination to run from this blender-like sifting….this idea that persecution is “bad”, this thinking that those who come after me and my family are satan themselves destroying everthing good God built…
Yes, it was then, EVERYTHING CHANGED!
I began submitting to this sifting, thanking God for what He was doing in my family….in my heart….in ME.
I realized the pain and hardship, persecution and resistance truly WAS an act of satan, but it was also a tool God not only ALLOWED, but was USING to rid ME from my old nature….
Pain and persecution was and IS actually a gift, something I could thank God for…because it was sifting me from everything in me that doesn’t look like Christ.
If I was to be like Elizabeth Elliot, bravely walking into the enemy zone, though those closest to me have been stabbed, stolen from and wounded….
- I needed to allow the shedding of my old nature and walk in my FULL nature of Christ.
- I needed to stand bravely, with nothing fleshly I was protecting, willingly giving up everything I was contributing to this fight….
- I needed to shed my old nature and put on the new, fresh, pure, holy, character of Christ.
Oh, yes, the enemy prowls. He is without a doubt, like a lion tryng to devour anyone that is not submitted to Christ….
But, I would be foolish to think I could fight him alone. I must trust that the angels of the LIVING GOD are encamped around me constantly…and God defends the righteous, bringing justice in His time.
I must bow low and know God is using it all to purify and annoint me for something greater, a heart that’s purer, a life that’s even more submitted to the call and purposes of Christ.
Elizabeth Elliot once said, “The secret is Christ in me….not me in a different set of circumstances.”
She knew, even amidst the battle, walking into the Amazon, equipped with no guns or weapons…taking her children, facing her accusers, the people who had murdered her husband….
Was only possible because she was clothed WITH Christ.
She knew, “You can never lose what you have offered to Christ.”
Be it pain, torment, or even death itself cannot rob us from what we have in Him….
Nothing can separate us from Christ.
Despite the hardships you might be going through today friends, regardless of the pain that might make you feel like you are in a blender, twisting and turning….
We can stand on the truth. It is only through the sifting of our old self-that we can be sanctified and made new…
We are not helpless victims who run and hide. We are not fearful cowards, but new in Christ…clothes by His power, being made holy and alive…
Elizabeth Elliot’s said herself, and we can be sure, friends, regardless of what we are going through…
“God’s story never ends with ‘ashes”.
* Do you have a friend of family member who has recently experienced sifting? Feel free to share this post by clicking the share button below.
5 Comments
Beautiful, Jen. I’m sorry it’s a season of sifting and blending for you all. You are not alone. I can relate and I appreciate your encouraging post. Let’s lean in to the sifting. ❤️
God’s story never ends with ashes!! Wow!! That is so cool 🙂
I found this post a huge comfort, dear Jenger, because my second son is Simon, and I have been praying that verse about Simon, Simon…. for 22 years now, standing on it as I await God calling him back to faith, knowing that when that happens, he will strengthen many of his brethren.
I had never made the connection before about Simon being Peter’s old name/nature.
Brilliant!
I also related to Elisabeth Elliot returning to her ” lion’s den” and loving those who had killed her husband.
Such courage!!
But when I went back to my ” lion’s den” [ old church] for a funeral, I was not given the opportunity to love on anyone. I was totally shunned, because I had left.
I was reminded on the words of Jesus to the disciples that they were to go into a village and preach, but if they were not received, to shake the dust off their feet and move on.
That’s what you and I have had to do!
No matter what, nothing can remove us from the love of God, which is greater far than tongue or pen can ever tell
It goes beyond the highest star
And reaches to the lowest hell
Entrusting YOU into His tender loving care and the safety of His arms. xxxx
Wow! These ideas are so incredibly encouraging to me. You have brought out things from this passage I never considered before. laurensparks.net
Excellent— truly excellent revelation!! Oh, I’ve been through the sifting.. you better believe! And God certainly used it to do away with the “old” me— the parts of me that did not resemble Him well. It was painful. So very painful. But God be glorified.
Thank you for sharing these truths. Powerful message!
Jen, I feel the depth of your words and have been in your place. To rest in the promise that it will not end in ashes and will not be endured in vain makes such a difference in how we walk through the sifting. The strength growing within you is already evident in your words. Hang on…God has this, and he has you!