“Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift you as wheat.”
Luke 22:31
“Shake well before using”.
These instructions are 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 floats 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–unchallenged–or to put it another way, perhaps immolized by a variety of fears- of man, of failure, of foolishness, of rejection, or overwhelming discouragement we can become inert and ineffective.
God in His omniscience knows that the very things we often dread are the very things that can bring reconstitution and restoration as those trials stir up our gifts.
Potency is restored as we are transformed into powerful and useful, each one enabled 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.