Sifting

Luke 16:13 No servant can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.”

So much on my mind this morning; so much intensely personal on so many ways, God is stirring my soul. I am struggling how to communicate them to you, without becoming all about me, not to give the wrong impression, and let you know that God may be doing the same thing in your heart and life. I heard a great pastor talk yesterday about how people come up to him, and tell him how they are feeling the tug of God on their lives, and ask his advice. What did he say to them? He discouraged them, for they must understand the realities of ministry. But, he said he did this in no fear of God, because God will always get his man; he knew this personally in his testimony. I know in mine that I thought I could do it my way, and oh how He is still showing me today that my ways are not His. If you ever want to hear God laugh, tell him your plans!

This passage in Luke is much more than a OneMinuteMinsitry; it is a sermon, a sermon series, a lifestyle, an attitude, a heart checkup with God. Anything, and I mean anything that holds a higher level in your life before God is an idol that you serve. Anything that you put above prayer, time in His Word, and service to him, is an idol in your life. It can be work, play, hobbies, people, habits, goals; look at your own lists. Christ told us that we are to become his disciples as his last words to us as he ascended into heaven. He told us the requirements of discipleship; Luke 14:33 So likewise, whoever of you does not forsake all that he has cannot be My disciple. If you are trying to get closer to God, you must forsake those things he will be showing you that you put before him.

Do you know sifting is? We all think of sifting flour, but it also means “to examine thoroughly so as to isolate that which is most important or useful.” Remember when Satan came to God and asked permission to sift Peter? Luke 22:31 And the Lord said, “Simon, Simon! Indeed, Satan has asked for you, that he may sift you as wheat. Things in your life, thoughts in your head, things that seem to be struggling or collapsing, may be because God is letting Satan bounce you around in a sifter to examine you. Will you let go of the impurities in your life? Will you let go of your idols? Will you let your work come second? Will you let, what seems to be crumbling, lie in the hands of Who truly holds it in their hands? All this shaking up of your life is God letting Satan do his dirty work, and all of it can backfire on Satan when you draw closer to God as a result of his sifting. Look up, for a sifter is open at the top.