Choosing Rest When You’re Shaken

To sift anything with a sieve, it must be shaken consistently so that the inner contents of what’s in the sieve filters through and falls out in a powdery consistency. The more you shake, the more the lumps are broken up until there is nothing left to shake.

Jesus said to Peter that Satan had desire to sift him. In this case, Jesus was saying that Satan had a plan to make sure that Peter and the disciples were shaken in their inner man so bad that they would just give up. He was giving Peter a foreshadow so that he would know that there was a plan constructed by hell to make Peter question everything Jesus had ever said about him.

At the height of his questioning, he wanted Peter to be so unstable that he would abandon everything that had to do with Jesus.

Understand this — Satan is deathly afraid of who you are. Period. His main battlefield is psychological. He’ll find ways to attempt to release toxic emotions and mind states like regret, anxiety, worry, stress, torment and panic then shaking your soul, so you’ll be focused on the emotions and won’t exercise the Godly authority you already have. He’ll shake whatever is around until you feel like throwing everything away, including this year and everything God has planned.God on the other hand knows the end from the beginning. He designed your life and mine as a determination to inflict destruction on hell. One of the reasons God placed you on earth is to be a menace… so hell hates when you wake up! He encoded in the DNA of who you are His original intent for your life and this year is a key part of expressing all of that in the various forms that it could be expressed.

Now, it’s day 20 of 2020, and I’m not sure how your year has been so far. There may have been some consistent “shaking” in your life in certain areas already. And, I absolutely get it. You might have planned that this is supposed to be the “bestest“, most important year of your life. But I would hate for you to let your guard down because you feel like you got this planned, all written down with those pretty pens and fresh planner you bought a couple months ago.

Writing goals/plans down won’t bring actual progress if the inner man is not:
1. Resolute in who Jesus is and sure of personal identity in Him.
2. Disciplined to recognize what and who I’m up against and act accordingly.What’s the wisdom in this? Communion with God builds and reveals the inner man. Let’s prioritize that this in this first part of the year… taking an inner man/soul assessment. Peter was an asset to the early church, but before he could be launched into that role, he needed to encounter who he was on the inside and if he was truly ready to be all that Jesus saw him to be. I invite you to do the same. I know I will.

Plans can shift, things can change. The main thing is knowing Him and assessing identity through His lens. Staying united with Him keeps the perspective of the big picture open… that no matter what, we always win. Always. I encourage you to use whatever may be shaken to allow God the room to refine and reveal who you are and what is on the inside. Some of what is revealed may be beautiful and some of it might be ugly. But when you know what’s on the inside, it brings a new level of sobriety. I think it helps to posture the heart before God. For me, it helps me to realize how much you really need Him for the evolution. Beyond our abilities and efforts, HE makes us productive and will extend us further than we could ever expect.