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SIFTING!
(From Winslow's, "The Man of God Sifted")
"For, lo, I will command, and I will sift
the
house of Israel among all nations, like as
corn is sifted in a sieve, yet shall not the
least grain fall upon the earth." Amos 9:9
Sometimes the Lord uses sanctified trial in
order to sift His people. Ah, what a mighty
fan is this with which God winnows His people!
He leads them about, sends cross providences,
dark dispensations, thwarted designs, blasted
hopes, and the precious grain is driven about,
wondering what will be the outcome. Messenger
follows messenger; bearing tidings of woe still
more lamentable than the former, and the poor
afflicted believer stands appalled, and wonders
what the Lord means by all this trial and sifting.
But oh, what a blessed result!
Seasons of trial are searching, sifting, and
separating seasons. God designs by that trial
not to wound you; oh, no! there is too much
love in His heart to put you to needless pain;
but to separate the precious wheat from the
refuse; to scatter the chaff that has mingled with
the divine grain, concealing and deteriorating it.
Yes, many a child of God living much in the region
of the world, and often, perhaps, yielding to its
temptations, has been placed by God in this sieve.
He has come out, oh what a different character!
What a higher tone it has given to his spirituality.
How dead he seems to the world! He acts, and
speaks, and prays like another man. Why? God
has only sifted him; the chaff has been separated,
the storm has scattered it, and the image of God
has been brought out in all its true beauty and power.
After the great sifting, there comes the declaration
that allays all our alarm, and fill us with joy and
gladness, "Yet shall not the least grain fall upon
the earth." Not a particle of the work of God in
the soul thus sifted shall perish! It is utterly
impossible it should be so. It cost God too much.
When God has carried you through dark and deep
waters, have you lost anything worth retaining?
You may have lost your worldliness and self
confidence; but was that really worth retaining?
Has Christ ever become less dear to you?
Has the throne of grace become less attractive to you?
Has the onward path of holiness been less dear to you?
Have the saints of God become less lovely to you?
Has the Word of God become less sweet to your taste?
Oh no! not one grain has fallen to the earth of that
Divine grace the Holy Spirit has planted in your soul.
"For, lo, I will command, and I will sift
the house of
Israel among all nations, like as corn is sifted
in a
sieve, yet shall not the least grain fall upon the earth."
Amos 9:9
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