The Fork Is In His Hand

Monday January 28, 2013

His winnowing fork is in his hand to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn, but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire. (Luke 3:17 NIV)

The winnowing fork has two purposes-- to clear away the useless and to gather the useful. The winnowing fork is used to throw loose materials into the air to allow the wind to clear away the loose casings -- the chaff -- and leave only the good seed. I saw this practice many times at the end of rice season in Taiwan. In the countryside the farmers were given part of the road to lay out their harvest and row by row they would dry and winnow the rice. In my growing up days I also saw pitchforks used during haying season to gather the bales of hay from the fields and also in the barn to take them to the haymow or to break them apart and move a pile of feed to the cattle stalls.

In our lives, in our churches, in our ministries God is winnowing today. Will we align ourselves with what God is doing or hang on to what we think is ours, what we have decided is successful, or the way we think things need to be done? Do we allow God to sort in our lives or are we living cluttered -- not sure what is valuable or what is useless. God stands ready to do his "winnowing work" in us. God will not harm us, nor take anything that is good from us. God will preserve what is valuable. His only desire is to destroy what is worthless. Do we trust the good heart of God to do this kind of work in us -- in our hopes and dreams, our possessions and programs, our time, and our finances?

We need to spend time with God, allowing the Holy Spirit to speak to us and sort us out. We can't sort ourselves out on our own. We'll get things wrong over and over again. We may not recognize that it's wrong but if we are not actively and consistently seeking the heart of the Lord about all we are and do, then we will go astray and end up in some dry place. We can't sort out what is good for this season simply based on what worked in the past season. God has a fresh and living work for each of us to do today.

Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. (Psalm 139:23-24 NIV)

Will we align ourselves with God’s purposes? If we try to do anything else, no matter how good it seems or how hard we work at it, we will be blocking what God wants to see happen and at some point it will be gathered up and discarded because it will be worthless.

The Fork Is In His Hand

Audio for The Fork Is In His Hand

Recent Meditations

MANY REASONS FOR GIVING THANKS

GETTING OFF TRACK BY REFUSING TO LISTEN

SETTLING MY HEART BY SHOWING MERCY

SUSPICIOUS

WHO’S ON CALL WHEN I NEED HELP?

Giving Hope