*In vs. 31 Jesus told Peter, “Simon, Simon! Indeed, Satan has asked for you, that he may sift you as wheat.”
*Satan is certainly still at work in the world today. Satan wanted to sift Peter, and Christian, you can be sure that he wants to sift us.
*In Bible days grain was sifted a couple of ways. One way was to toss the grain up, where the chaff and dust would be blown away, leaving the heavier grain in the basket or cloth.
*I remember my mom using a sifter when I was a kid. They either had a crank or a spring-loaded pull handle. We played with them like they were some kind of space death ray or something, -- but Mom’s sifter was really used to break up clumps of flour. Sifters separate things.
*I used to work for the State Highway Dept. in Georgia, and my main job was asphalt inspection. We had a chemical that would wash all of the tar out of the asphalt. Then we would shake the rocks through a stack of sifters with holes that got smaller and smaller all the way down. The top sifter had holes over an inch big. -- But by the time you got to the bottom, all you had was fine sand.
*Sifters separate things. And Satan wants to sift us. He wants to separate husbands from their wives. He wants to separate children from their parents.
-Satan wants to separate you from your family, from your Christian brothers and sisters, from church, from the Bible and from God’s purpose for your life.
-Satan wants to separate you from the good works and witness God wants in you.
-And worst of all, Satan wants to separate you from your faith in Jesus Christ.