經文: 「我必出令，將以色列分散在列國中，好像用篩子篩穀，連一粒也不落在地上。」

每一次的篩選，都是經過上帝的安排，若沒有上帝的允准，撒旦連一根指頭都不敢碰約伯。撒旦拿著篩子，想要摧毀穀子，但上帝卻藉著撒旦篩選的過程，作成煉淨穀粒的工作。因此在苦難中，要思想上帝所以這麼苦待你，為的是要你得榮耀，得那永遠的好處。當然上帝會用祂手中的扇子，將好的壞的分開。在篩選的過程，純重飽滿的穀粒可以站立得住，但那輕浮的糠粃卻要被吹散，歸於無有。
觀看上帝手中麥子的命運，即使最小的一粒，也蒙上帝的保守。上帝親自在各國各地進行嚴格的篩選工作，即使最小、最輕的穀粒，祂一點也不輕忽小看，絕不讓它掉落地上。每個信徒在上帝眼中，都是寶貴，無論他是多麼渺少，上帝都護佑、顧念，讓我們因著上帝的保守而歡呼喜樂吧！


Morning, June 20
Scripture: “For, lo, I will command, and I will sift the house of Israel among all nations, like as corn is sifted in a sieve, yet shall not the least grain fall upon the earth.”(Amos 9:9)

Every sifting comes by divine command and permission. Satan must ask leave before he can lay a finger upon Job. Nay, more, in some sense our siftings are directly the work of heaven, for the text says, “I will sift the house of Israel.” Satan, like a drudge, may hold the sieve, hoping to destroy the corn; but the overruling hand of the Master is accomplishing the purity of the grain by the very process which the enemy intended to be destructive. Precious, but much sifted corn of the Lord's floor, be comforted by the blessed fact that the Lord directeth both flail and sieve to his own glory, and to thine eternal profit.

The Lord Jesus will surely use the fan which is in his hand, and will divide the precious from the vile. All are not Israel that are of Israel; the heap on the barn floor is not clean provender, and hence the winnowing process must be performed. In the sieve true weight alone has power. Husks and chaff being devoid of substance must fly before the wind, and only solid corn will remain.

Observe the complete safety of the Lord's wheat; even the least grain has a promise of preservation. God himself sifts, and therefore it is stern and terrible work; he sifts them in all places, “among all nations”; he sifts them in the most effectual manner, “like as corn is sifted in a sieve”; and yet for all this, not the smallest, lightest, or most shrivelled grain, is permitted to fall to the ground. Every individual believer is precious in the sight of the Lord, a shepherd would not lose one sheep, nor a jeweller one diamond, nor a mother one child, nor a man one limb of his body, nor will the Lord lose one of his redeemed people. However little we may be, if we are the Lord's, we may rejoice that we are preserved in Christ Jesus.