You sift the wheat from the chaff,
Separate the barley from the hull,
Till all that remains is Your harvest.
You call us all to let go of the stuff, the fluff,
The unnecessary things and habits we cling to
Till all that remains is Your perfect work
Forming us to Your character
So that others can see real substance in us.
You also separate those who turn away
From those who choose to follow…
Those whose hearts are not truly committed
From those who will never look back.
These are difficult times but
The winnowing process is meant to be hard.
The winds of trouble are blowing
Through the threshing floor now…
O Lord Jesus, let me be of the substance that matters,
Not of the stuff that You are blowing away.
Tag Archive: turn
Interesting, Lord…
The way You do things
Never ceases to amaze me.
So many “suddenlies� recently
In my life and those around me
Teach me again that
The waiting is always worth it.
I never know when it will end
(And it always seems endless),
But then You turn my life inside out
Or upside down… or right-side left.
I never know quite how
Things will end up these days.
I can sense though that
One of those “suddenlies� is almost here.
I’m not really stressed about it—
Just pondering how different
My life will be in just two months.
It’s like the anticipation I felt on
The first day of every school year.
What new things will I need to learn?
What new people will I meet?
How will I feel when
The holidays come this year and
I am in a different place?
Knowing that change will come, but
Not knowing what change will look like…
This is a good thing.
My faith grows every day because
You did say, after all, that
Father causes his sun to rise
On the evil and the good, and
Sends rains on the righteous
And the unrighteous.
So I know I can rely on You to be
“My strength and my fortress,
My God in whom I trust,�
Whatever change and happenstance
Brings my way.
I lay before God—awed, amazed, abashed at who He is.
This vast, uncreated being fills the expanse of the universes
Yet reaches down in compassion to come dwell within me—
Drawing me, teaching me, leading me in paths of righteousness,
Because He says, “…I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked.
I only want them to turn from their wicked ways so they can live.�
And I cannot trust in my own righteousness, only in His leading.
I do not want to love with my mouth while seeking my own gain in my heart.
So, I lay before Him…receiving His infinite grace through His Son,
Following Him where I have never been, but long to be.
It is a mystery I cannot fathom that He loves me.
His ways are so much higher than I could ever understand
But I am grateful that He wants me to live
Truly, fully abandoned in His life…
All…ALL…because He loves me.
EZEKIEL 33:11, 31