June 20 "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 had to ask for permission before he could lay a finger on Job. Satan 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. Be comforted by the blessed fact that the Lord directs the sieve to His own glory and to your eternal profit. The Lord Jesus will surely use the fan which is in His hand and will divide the precious from the vile. 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 smallest grain has a promise of preservation. God Himself sifts in all places, in all nations, and in the most effectual manner. Yet through all of this, not the smallest, lightest, or most shriveled grain is permitted to fall to the ground. Every individual believer is precious in the sight of the Lord, and He will not lose one of His redeemed people. No matter how little we may be, if we are the Lord's, we may rejoice that we are preserved in Christ Jesus.