Every time I read the following passage, I cringe, thinking I am the chaff. I'm not good enough. I'm one of the bad ones. That was because of my misconception of who God is, and what he desires of me.

While he does desire me to be one of his righteous ones, he does not desire me to do it on my own. Now that I have looked at this text much more closely, I believe he is offering to MAKE me one of the righteous ones. I believe that this winnowing process is not to separate good people from bad people, but to separate the good in me from the bad in me.

I believe that the Holy Ghost will do this in all who let Him. I believe this is called Healing.

Matt 3:11-12
11 I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance: but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire:  12 Whose fan is in his hand, and he will thoroughly purge his floor, and gather his wheat into the garner; but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire. KJV

The fan referred to in the above scriptures was a Winnowing Fan. A step in the processing of grain whereby the grain is separated from the inedible parts. The stalks are thrown into the air, and the wind blows away the chaff and the straw, letting the heavier pure grain fall back to the ground (Isa 30:24).

John the Baptist used winnowing as an analogy of God's judgment, when the Lord would separate the sinful from the righteous (Matt 3:12).

(from Holman Bible Dictionary. Copyright © 1991 by Holman Bible Publishers. All rights reserved.)