Wayne Cordeiro - Sifted: Pursuing Growth Through Trials, Challenges, and Disappointments

Satan has asked to sift all of you as wheat. But I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers.

Luke 22:3132 NIV

A few years ago, I hired a fitness trainer to help me with my weight training. (I dont bother with a trainer anymore; now I just let my weight train itself.) Working with my trainer, I loaded several plates onto the bar and positioned myself for a bench press. Pushing the weight upward for the first ten reps was work, but I could handle it. Then, the repetitions slowed and the arm vibrations began.

On the eleventh rep, I was convinced that I was done. The bar seemed glued to my chest. I cried out in distress, Im done! Help!

Like a gleeful schoolgirl, my trainer smiled and said, Keep pushing! Now youre building muscle. Now it starts!

In my mind, I was thinking, What do you think Ive been doing for the last ten reps? But the trainer kept up his mantra, Now youre building muscle! Now it begins! He must have understood the urgency I felt, because he reached down with two fingers and gave me just enough assistance so I could lift the bar up, but not enough to let me rest or give up.

When I felt like I was spent, he urged me to dig deep for one last repetition, because that would be, in his words, the most important rep of all.

The following morning, even though I couldnt lift my arms to shampoo my hair, I replayed that scene in my mind. Im sure that every repetition was important, but I knew that my trainer had been right: the real development of my muscles didnt begin until I thought I was spent. On that twelfth rep, the old muscle tissue broke down, and new and hopefully greater muscle mass took its place.

Sifting is that twelfth rep. The process of sifting, coming to that moment when our strength is spent, is how God builds our faith. Its a process that forms new character, tearing away old perspectives and putting fresh truth in its place. Former habits are discarded and wrong tendencies abandoned.

Its the rep we are most tempted to skip. But its the most important rep of all.

Whenever I am going through a difficult season in life or ministry, I find myself wishing that the process of sifting were optional. In Luke 22, Jesus tells his disciples that Satan has asked to sift them, as one would sift wheat on a threshing room floor to separate the good from the bad. Jesus encourages his disciples by telling them that he has prayed for them that their faith would not fail.

I dont find this very reassuring. What Id like is for Jesus to pray that Satan would be thwarted, or even that God would dispatch angels to assist me. But that my faith would not fail? That doesnt sound very reassuring! Jesus, by praying this way, seems to suggest that theres a very good possibility that my faith might indeed fail. Gulp!

I can picture myself dangling over a cliff, yelling for help, while my friend kneels at a picnic table and tells me that hes praying that my faith will not fail. This doesnt look like the picture of friendship at all!

But heres the good news, and well talk more about this in the pages to come: if Jesus prayer comes to pass and I am confident that it will and if my faith will stay the course, then a new caliber of confidence in God will take place that will authorize me to give strength to others.

And when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers. When the season of sifting is finished and the difficulties have been navigated well we end up with a new level of faith, a quality that is not available to us by any other means. Sifting produces a clarity about who we are and what we do, giving definition to the work of ministry that produces long-term results and fruitfulness.

The real question, then, is not whether we will face failure. It is how well we will face it. How we respond to the challenges and trials in our lives and ministries makes all the difference in the world.

What do you do when things dont go as you plan?

Perhaps youve planted a church or are involved in pastoral leadership or have just undertaken a new season of ministry and things arent going as you had hoped they would. Its easy to get caught up in an endless cycle of tweaking programs and looking for the next tool that promises to solve every problem. Eventually, frustration, discouragement, loneliness, and even anger can set in. Perhaps your marriage is off balance or your finances have you on the ropes. You find yourself continually longing and praying for breakthrough. You want so badly to get to that next step, whatever that next step looks like in your mind, but no matter how hard you try, that next step never seems to arrive.

Hold tight.

You may be in a season of sifting, and if you respond correctly, this season can be every bit as important as the time of harvest. Sifting builds the muscle of our faith, giving us the caliber of strength we will need for what lies just around the corner. Scripture tells us that the challenges we face in life happen for a reason, and the process of sifting refines us, revealing our weaknesses, exposing our self-dependence and inviting us to greater faith in God and greater dependence on his promises. Our prayer during this time is not that we will avoid being sifted, but that we will navigate the process well, and after weve survived, our faith will be ratified.

Lets make this personal. When the sifting begins, we all wonder, Will I survive this at all? And if I do, will I emerge on the other side strengthened, or will I fail? Thats the big question. Will I have the skills, patience, and spiritual depth necessary to survive the sifting process?

A sifted person is someone who is able, by Gods grace, to reflect on his experience and emerge from a time of trial with a better grasp of what matters most. Hes a person who has been tested, proven capable and mature.

If youre in a season of difficult ministry right now, youre in good company.

In the pages ahead, we provide a roadmap for successful navigation. Some of these trials weve already experienced. Some were still facing. Know that you have guides on this journey, and as fellow travelers, well journey together. Take comfort in knowing that every successful leader encounters trials. For instance, consider how:

Davids training was in desert caves, hiding from his enemies, and not in the marbled halls of a palace.

Josephs training was in the prisons of Egypt.

Moses was taught and humbled by working as a shepherd in the sands of the Sinai.

Jacob was assigned Professor Laban as his instructor for more than fourteen years.

Each of these leaders, when faced with a difficult challenge, had the opportunity to retaliate, refuse, recant, or run. But they didnt do any of those things. Instead, they chose to push through the twelfth rep and build the real muscle of faith in the process.