“Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift all of you as wheat."
Luke 22:31
"Shake well before using".
These instructions are often on the labels of all sorts of products.
It seems that when the container, or vessel, sits for a while, the ingredients have a tendency to separate. The heavy, thick, and dense stuff settles to the bottom, the light stuff to the top.
The only way to reconstitute the ingredients and make it usable for what it is intended for is to follow the maker's directions: shake that container vigorously before using.
Similarly, our Maker knows that our "ingredients", especially our God- given gifts, have a tendency to settle. As we sit , shelved and undisturbed or unchallenged, or perhaps frozen by a variety of fears- of man, failure, foolishness, rejection, discouragement, and more, we can become inert and ineffective. But the Lord in His omniscience knows that the very things we can often dread - upheaval, shaking, pruning, and refining- brings reconstitution and restoration to a vessel, as trials can stir our gifts. Instead of devastation, potency is restored, and the vessel (us) is no longer rendered inert but transformed into powerful and useful, each able to fulfill our destinies!
It is what we are created for.
So don't fear a shaking, beloved.
You are about to be used for His Glory.
Luke 22:31
"Shake well before using".
These instructions are often on the labels of all sorts of products.
It seems that when the container, or vessel, sits for a while, the ingredients have a tendency to separate. The heavy, thick, and dense stuff settles to the bottom, the light stuff to the top.
The only way to reconstitute the ingredients and make it usable for what it is intended for is to follow the maker's directions: shake that container vigorously before using.
Similarly, our Maker knows that our "ingredients", especially our God- given gifts, have a tendency to settle. As we sit , shelved and undisturbed or unchallenged, or perhaps frozen by a variety of fears- of man, failure, foolishness, rejection, discouragement, and more, we can become inert and ineffective. But the Lord in His omniscience knows that the very things we can often dread - upheaval, shaking, pruning, and refining- brings reconstitution and restoration to a vessel, as trials can stir our gifts. Instead of devastation, potency is restored, and the vessel (us) is no longer rendered inert but transformed into powerful and useful, each able to fulfill our destinies!
It is what we are created for.
So don't fear a shaking, beloved.
You are about to be used for His Glory.
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