It seems, Father, that the end of this year is rushing towards us. Even though it is less full in many ways, it is still a bit overwhelming. Help us to take the time to see all that You want to hear, see, and feel throughout this season. Amen.

Luke 22:31-38 (<<click here to read the passage)

When I think of sifting, I think of the kitchen appliance we had in my youth pictured above. My mom and grandmother used it to shift flour to get rid of lumps and make it “airier” for recipes. Due to modern processing techniques, we no longer need to shift flour, except in special cases.

But the more I looked into Jesus’ statement of satan’s desire to sift the disciples like wheat, I discovered it was nothing at all like sifting flour.

Looking online I learned that “the first step in the 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 (solid) floor…and to beat it with a flail.”

OK, my next quest was to find out what a “flail” was. I found a short video that goes through the whole process of threshing wheat with a flail. (You might want to turn off your volume, the song in the video is a little odd…)

Now watching that quickly got my attention!

Note that Jesus never said they wouldn’t be sifted. He just prayed that Simon’s (Peter’s} faith, in particular, should not fail. v32

All the disciples would be sifted – flailed – like wheat, there’s no way around it. And though it’s majorly uncomfortable to think about…we will be, as well. But…Jesus prays for us in the same fashion. He prays that our faith should not fail and that when we have repented and turned to Jesus again that we can strengthen one another.

It is simply impossible to sidestep failure. Not one of us is perfect. Our willpower may fail and that most assuredly will lead to a flail by satan and his minions, or at the very least our own tortuous minds, but with God’s help, our faith will remain steadfast.

Lord Jesus, help us to fail less, for sure, but even more important still, may our faith be rock solid so that we may return to You for forgiveness and the strength to move forward…always upward and onward. Amen.

Dec 14th, 2020, Mon, 6:54 pm