Sift me, Oh Lord!
This morning I woke up with my “To Do List” on my mind. One thing I want to accomplish today is to make some molasses cookies. Yes, you heard it right, not chocolate chip, oatmeal raisin, peanut butter, or sugar cookies, but molasses cookies. These aren’t just any ole molasses cookies though. I’ll be using by Grandma Parker’s recipe.
You see, when I was young, I remember my grandma always making my three older brothers molasses cookies for Christmas or their birthday. The gift box would be delivered and I’m not sure who was more excited to open it up, my brothers or the rest of us. Mmmm, I can taste them now.
Well, all my brothers and their families are coming over to the house tomorrow night for chili, a movie, and good ole fellowship. I LOVE my family time with my brothers! I thought it would be a pleasant surprise if I brought back a fond memory when they smelled the aroma of the molasses cookies and enjoyed the sweet taste. I just hope the cookies are almost as good as my grandma’s. That will be tough to do. Yikes! Pressure is on now.
When I found the recipe and began reading the ingredients, the first thing on the list was 1 ½ cup of “sifted” self-rising flour. Then, after I made my grocery list I began reading the scriptures for today. In Amos 9:9b it says, “But it will be like someone sifting flour. A person shakes flour through a sifter. The good flour falls through, but the bad lumps are caught.” How perfect! God gave me a visual, pre-reading, so that I could relate to His word a little more. A devotion in the making.
I know several recipes call for sifted flour. I remember one time testing the measurement of the flour before sifting and after. There really is a difference. The sifted flour was much more light and airy. When I googled “Why sift flour when baking” so that I could confirm what I thought I knew, I found this: “Sifting flour removes lumps and aerates it so that when liquid is added the dry ingredients will be fully moistened.” (http://www.joyofbaking.com/flour.html ) Yep, that’s pretty much how the bible describes it too.
God was talking, in Amos, to the Israelites and their sinful ways. We all need some sifting.
After reading Amos I told God, “God shake me down! Shift me! Take any evilness away and leave me with Your goodness.”
You know when you get a burden removed from you, whatever it may be, you feel much lighter and free. That is much like “sifted” flour…aerated and when liquid is added it will be fully moistened. Relate that to God a bit more and think about it this way: When you are sifted, your sin is removed. When you are filled with The Living Water (Jesus = liquid) you feel full and refreshed.
Do you want to be sifted? I do.
Blessings to you.
December 20