Sifting Like Wheat

My reading for today was Luke 22 - the chapter includes Jesus's words to Peter, "Satan has asked to sift you like wheat, but I've prayed for you...that your faith may not fail."

As I thought about Peter and being sifted like wheat, I thought about me.  Many days it seems that Satan is sifting me.  I say that, not because the incidents and issues I face are difficult.  I say it because of my response. 


You see, when "life" happens, I don't respond as a baptized child of God.  The "selfish me" takes over, and I react sinfully.  

I start to doubt my faith, my God, what I'm doing.  And I want to run away.  

I don't pray, "Lord, I know You and trust You."  Instead, I think, "I'm done; I'm out of here."  Just like Peter.

After the Luke reading, I turned to Psalm 137, which is a hard and depressing Psalm.

The Psalmist laments that he and the people are exiles in Babylon, exiles because of their sin, their idolatry.  Life isn't good, and the future doesn't seem hopeful. 

On top of it all, the Babylonians want the Israelites to sing a song of Zion, a song of their Lord.  And the Psalmist can't sing these songs...

How shall we sing the LORD's song in a foreign land?            Psalm 137:4

To sing to the Lord, in the midst of sin and exile...

My sin, which never seems to end. 

And yet, I will sing His praises, in my exile in this fallen world.  For I know the hope of Jesus and the forgiveness of sins.  He has not left me alone.

He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities.  For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us.  As a father shows compassion to his children, so the LORD shows compassion to those who fear him.  Psalm 103:10-13

Even as I struggle, even as I sin and want to run away.  Like Peter, in trials, I fail...

My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.  Psalm 73:26

Prayer from the Lutheran Study Bible notes for Psalm 137:

O Lord, as we, too, are exiles in this ungodly world, teach us to mourn for our sins.  Give us the gift of repentance, so that we may escape the judgment we deserve.  Deliver us from our captivity to sin, through Your Son, Jesus Christ.
Amen.