Sifted

In the course of four years, I had to do 6 rounds of chemo, a leg surgery & 25 radiations for cancer, our son was having unexplainable tummy pains and no where near the growth chart in addition to dyslexia & dysgraphia, our middle child had severe scoliosis and had to wear a backbrace 18 hrs a day & then suffered a gangrenous, burst appendix after my radiation. And did i mention the lice episode that arrived in the middle of all that?!?! My husband said his christian co-workers soon showed up at his door and regularly prayed over him at work because, as they said, we were being sifted.

Have you ever been sifted? It’s trials on espresso. You can’t find your footing for so long you finally give up trying. The Bible talks about it. Jesus even told Peter that the devil had sought permission to sift him as wheat. But why?

In Romans 5 We are told to “glory in our sufferings because sufferings produce perseverance & perseverance produces character. And character? Hope.” And in the Old Testament we are told the Isrealites were allowed to suffer so they “would remember their God and sin not”

Glory in our sufferings.

If you’ve ever been sifted, you know the word glory is the last word on your mind. And hope? It seems to taunt, not comfort. So, hope for what??

Things not of this world. The more we are pressed down and persecuted, the more we long and pine for heaven. It is one of God’s most precious gifts. It is through trials that we “share in His suffering”. Are you sifted and being put through the ringer? There is hope to come!