The Divine Sieve

 

It was nine o’clock last night and I was seeing the error message for the umpteenth time. Nothing I tried was working. I was frustrated.

One lucent example of our Father’s love is how He often first teaches us the lesson and then provides the practical situation for us to live out what we have just learned.

Mere moments after I had posted yesterday on blessings and the importance of being thankful, the Lord tested my grateful heart and I am ashamed to say that my gratitude drained away quite fast.

You see, Microsoft Word on my laptop proceeded to quit working. Granted, I did not really need it last night, but my next three block classes start soon. While Microsoft Office is certainly a wonderful tool and probably falls in the category of luxury for most people, it is somewhat imperative for online students. We do nearly everything in Word: discussion posts and responses, lecture notes, papers, and so on.

So, yes, I panicked.

Then my conscience pricked me. It’s not the worst thing in the world by a long shot. You just finished counting your blessings. Is there anything you can be thankful for here?

Yes, I had to admit there was. First, I am on spring break. There are no assignments that need to be completed. Second, the semester does not start until Monday. That gives me four days to solve the problem. Third, God is still in control. He allowed the malfunction.

In my devotions yesterday morning, I read Chapter XII in Hannah Whitall Smith’s The Christian’s Secret of a Happy Life. The title of the chapter?

“Is God in Everything?”

Mrs. Smith writes that Christians have a tendency to submit easier to trials and tribulations they know come from God, but difficulty in submitting to trials that come through other humans.

We know that God is obviously not the author of evil or confusion (I Corinthians 14:33), but He does allow these things to touch our lives.

The solution, Mrs. Smith states, “is to see God in everything, and to receive everything directly from His hands, with no intervention of second causes; and it is to just this that we must be brought, before we can know an abiding experience of entire abandonment and perfect trust. Our abandonment must be to God, not to man; and our trust must be in Him, not in any arm of flesh, or we shall fail at the first trial.”

Psalm 16 says, “The Lord is the portion of mine inheritance and of my cup: Thou maintainest my lot” (vs. 5). The Lord maintains our lot – He makes it secure. He is the divine sieve through which everything that touches our lives must first pass. “To the children of God, everything comes directly from their Father’s hand, no matter who or what may have been the apparent agents.”

Mrs. Smith continues, “Second causes must all be under the control of our Father, and not one of them can touch us except with His knowledge and by His permission. It may be the sin of man that originates the action, and therefore the thing itself cannot be said to be the will of God; but by the time it reaches us it has become God’s will for us, and must be accepted as directly from His hands. No man or company of men, no power in earth or heaven, can touch that soul which is abiding in Christ, without first passing through His encircling presence, and receiving the seal of His permission.”

Is that not incredibly comforting? We can rest in utter peace, knowing all is under our Father’s control. Nothing that reaches me has not passed through His hands first.

Furthermore, this truth applies to all of life, right down to the tiniest little disappointments, frustrations, and trials that we face. “He, who counts the very hairs of our hands, and suffers not a sparrow to fall without Him, takes note of the minutest matters that can affect the lives of His children, and regulates them all according to His own perfect will, let their origin be what they may.”

The Apostle Paul commands us to “walk in love” (Ephesians 5:2) “forbearing one another” (Colossians 3:13), doing all things “without murmurings and disputings” (Philippians 2:14), and letting “the peace of God rule in your hearts” (Colossians 3:15). If we adopt the perspective of knowing all comes to us through the sieve of His love, we will be better equipped to live out these commands.

“Nothing else but this seeing God in everything, will make us loving and patient with those who annoy and trouble us. They will be to us then only the instruments for accomplishing His tender and wise purposes toward us, and we shall even find ourselves at last inwardly thanking them for the blessings they bring. Nothing else will completely put an end to all murmuring or rebelling thoughts. Christians often feel at liberty to murmur against man, when they would not dare to murmur against God. Therefore this way of receiving things would make it impossible ever to murmur. If our Father permits a trial to come, it must be because the trial is the sweetest and best thing that could happen to us, and we must accept it with thanks from His dear hand.”

We must also remember, that when He allows things to flow through His sieve, He also gives us the grace and strength to confront them. His grace, ever-flowing and all-sufficient, is always there. With that perspective, we can truly “in everything give thanks” (I Thessalonians 5:18).

“Lord, may I today go quietly about the work You have set me to do, trusting your absolute control of my life, unafraid of what happens today or what may happen tomorrow. I worship You,  my Lord and my King. You are my strength.”

- Elisabeth Elliot