I'm very grateful for the Spirit of God, the Breath of God, by which I live and breathe!
As the pressures of life increase with the end of the age, I'm "fighting for breath" so that my inner life is awake and alive and in touch with the living God. I want to live my day out of a place of deep inner quietness, not from a place of drivenness and fear.
The good news in this is that God in Christ is infinitely more zealous about this than I am. He will never grow weary nor discouraged in His zeal over having all of me, and it is this reality that gives me hope. If it were up to my zeal and energy, there would be no hope.
Over the years the Lord has taught me to fear taking action when there is inner turbulence going on in me. I keep learning this again and again as the Lord leads me into new arenas and levels of serving Him.
This week I was reading in John 16 and when I read verse 33, the Holy Spirit quickened it anew to me: em>>"These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation, but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world."
I was struck in a new way with the truth that only IN HIM do I have inner peace; by the same token, IN THE WORLD (dependence on anything but Jesus) I can count on being easily shaken in my soul. What the Lord has taught me over the years is that when I find my inner being in turbulence, I must pause and find out from the Spirit what is disturbing me. In doing this, He can pinpoint specifically what is causing the disturbance (in what way have I separated my heart and mind from the Vine?), and then I can deal with that specific issue.
And so I love the Holy Spirit and His beautiful and powerful ministry in my life - without Him I cannot remain in Christ; He is unbelievably faithful to get my attention. It then remains for me to respond appropriately to His touch.
Holy Spirit, come again and again and breathe on us Your life-giving Breath. We are "breath-less" without you and live suffocating lives unless You come in Your grace and power. Thank You for loving to do this for us. We love You! In Jesus' name, Amen.
Blessings on your week!
Thursday, May 29, 2008
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