Weekly Devotion
February 22, 2012
I have started teaching once a month a Bible lesson at the Adult Day Care of Mt. Holly. This week my lesson was on the Holy Spirit and his function. There was a powerful lesson I learned as I was studying and preparing for the class. It was so transformative for me I would like to share it with you. We often tell others to obey God and live out his commands. I am sure many are wondering, “How? Whenever I try to do good evil is always present.” Do these words sound familiar? Paul spoke these very words in Romans 7:21-25 “So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God – through Jesus Christ our Lord!” Have you been there? If we are honest with ourselves we can say we all have been there. It seems like a daily struggle. We want and desire to please God and obey him yet at the same time that temptation pulls us back time again. How can we grow stronger in the Lord to be able to withstand the traps that are set before us? This is where the lesson God taught me in my study got very exciting for me. If we just open and read God’s Holy Word we will find the answers to EVERYTHING that we experience in life. Listen to Jesus words in John 14:15, “If you love me, you will obey what I command.” I hear what you are thinking for I thought the same thing. You are thinking, “I really do love Jesus, but I just have problems with this obey thing.” Obey means to comply with or to follow the commands and guidance of someone. Now, stay with me and I will share with you what God taught me. John 14:16-17, “And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever – the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you.” Oh my goodness. I want to do my holy dance on that one, but Nancy and the pre-school teachers down the hall may think I have lost my mind. Well, they think that anyway.J It is the Holy Spirit who empowers us to live the Christian life. It is the Holy Spirit who helps us to obey. It is the Holy Spirit who teaches us all things and remind us of everything (read John 14:25-26). It is the Holy Spirit who gives us life (read John 6:63). If you are living a defeated life then ask yourself, “Have you tapped into the power of the Holy Spirit.” In order to grow daily, for this is a daily walk we take with the Lord, we must be plugged into him daily. We plug in through prayer, his Word, Christian fellowship. So often we rather plug into garbage on television instead of being with the Lord or good Christian friends. I read a story from Tony Evans book about a man who purchased a refrigerator. He brought it home but it was not working. The man checked everything (or so he thought). He called the manufacturer and said, “This refrigerator does not work.” They asked him to check various things and he did. Then the manufacturer said, “Okay, once last thing. Check the back of the refrigerator. Is it plugged into the outlet?” Well, you guessed it. The man forgot to plug it in. Sometimes we are like that man and refrigerator. We do not plug into our power source – the Holy Spirit. So, get plugged in today. Amen.
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Reverend Angela A. Pleasants
First United Methodist Church
Mt. Holly, NC 28120
Phone: 704-827-4855
"There are two days on my calendar: today and 'that day.' I want to live today for that day." `Martin Luther`
