Shaken and Sifted, Yet Secure

What does it feel like to be sifted? To have the ground shift beneath you? To feel your strength faltering, your hope thinning, your prayers reduced to groans?

Maybe it’s a season of loss, disappointment, confusion, or waiting. Maybe it’s the quiet ache of loneliness. Maybe it’s the loud chaos of suffering.

Tucked quietly into the Gospel of Luke, a moment between Jesus and Peter pulses with hope for the one being sifted.

“Simon, Simon, look out. Satan has asked to sift you like wheat. But I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail.” (Luke 22:31–32)

These verses fall quietly between the Lord’s Supper, a kerfuffle over which disciple is the greatest, and Christ foretelling Peter’s denial. As the fast paced narrative lurches toward the cross, we might easily skim past these words of Jesus, but they contain such sweet theological richness that we ought to pause and linger a while. 

Sifted Like Wheat

Jesus begins His statement to Peter with a warning, “Look out, Satan has asked to sift you like wheat.” In the original Greek, the word for you is plural, so while Christ is directly addressing Peter, His statement holds true for the rest of His disciples as well—including you and me. But what does this sifting look like? 

In Bible times, the process of sifting involved the wheat being beaten and then violently shaken, in order to separate the grain from the chaff. It doesn’t take much to imagine what this might look like in the Christian life, especially when we take into account that according to Scripture and church tradition, most of the men Jesus was addressing were persecuted and eventually martyred for their faith. (Not to mention other examples throughout Scripture.) The apostle Paul was shipwrecked, beaten, and jailed. Job experienced his fair share of sifting. And you and I could each jot down a list of our own sifting experiences. 

Yes, Christ Himself tells us that in this world we will have trouble, but there is hope, because He has overcome the world (John 16:33).

In His Sovereign Hands

You see, even in His warning to Peter, Christ shows the power and sovereignty of God. Jesus doesn’t simply say that Satan will sift the disciples—though that is true. He says that Satan has asked to sift them. Our enemy is not all-powerful. He can only cause as much destruction as he is allowed. We see this firsthand in Job 1:12, where the Lord permits Satan to test Job, but sets clear limits on what he can and cannot do. 

Friend, even our sifting bears the fingerprints of the Almighty. The trials and troubles of this life are not unseen by God. More than that, they are under His sovereign control. His hand stops the adversary and says, “No more.” What a comfort. To be sure, sifting will come, and it often takes the shape of circumstances which we ourselves would never choose, but what a strange and sweet reassurance that the things that we might not understand this side of heaven are safely within the wise, loving control of our sovereign Lord. 

This is not the only comfort that Jesus gives here. He continues by saying, “but I have prayed for you.” Take a moment to stop and breathe in this gracious gift. If you are in Christ, then He is interceding for you. 

This is amazing news that we don’t talk about enough. At this moment our risen Lord is seated at the right hand of the Father interceding for you. Interceding for me. What a gift! 

What a comfort that our High Priest who knows what it is to be tempted and tortured and torn apart by this world is pleading to the Father on our behalf. If you are being sifted today, take comfort in this: Christ Himself intercedes for you, not as one who doesn’t understand your circumstances or pain, but as the incarnate God, the Man of Sorrows, the Creator who knows you more intimately than you know yourself. 

Held Fast

Jesus continues by saying specifically that He has prayed, “that your faith may not fail.” I don’t know about you, but it doesn’t take much sifting for me to feel like I am barely hanging on to my faith. The good news is that even when we feel as though we are barely hanging on, the Lord is firmly holding on to us. In John 10:27–29 we are reminded, 

“My sheep hear my voice, I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all. No one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand.”

Similarly, Romans 8:38–39 reminds us that nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus. So even when our faith feels fragile, it is not the strength of our faith that saves us, but its object. Our assurance rests not in how tightly we can cling to Christ but in the unbreakable truth that He is holding fast to us. His grip does not slip. His prayers do not fail. His promises do not waver.

Jesus didn’t pray that Peter would be spared from the sifting—He prayed that Peter’s faith would not fail. And because Christ Himself intercedes, Peter’s faith endures. Not perfectly, but truly. Not without faltering, but without failing.

We are kept not by our own resolve but by the sovereign hand of God. Those whom the Father has given to the Son will not be lost. Not one. Not ever. Because Christ is both the Author and the Perfecter of our faith (Heb. 12:2), we can be confident that He will bring to completion what He has begun in us. The sifting will come, but it will not undo what Christ has secured.

Formed and Refined

Friend, you may be sifted, but if you are in Christ you will not be lost. You may be struck down, but you will not be destroyed. You may feel weak, but the One who holds you is not. Draw from the strength of the One who lives to intercede for you. Linger there—and take comfort in the Savior who sees, who prays, and who holds you fast.

As you linger, remember James 1:2–4,

Consider it a great joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you experience various trials, because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its full effect, so that you may be mature and complete, lacking nothing.

Sifting is not the end of your story. These trials will be used for your good and God’s glory to form you more closely into Christ’s image. So take heart. The trial is real, but so is the fruit. The shaking may be fierce, but the Savior is faithful. He will not let you go.

Want more comforting truth like this? Look for titles like You Can Trust God to Write Your Story by Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth and Robert Wolgemuth—-now 50 percent off during our Spring Sale. Shop and save through April 30!