Month: July 2020

Re:Verse passage – Romans 14:17-19 (day three)

“We pursue the things which make for peace.”

The way of life with others to which you have become accustomed requires the exertion of strength to assert your opinions, to defend your ideas, to guard your feelings, and to search for acceptance – all in order to secure a position as a valued member of a community or group or society. To the degree you’re not adept at exerting that strength, your status will suffer accordingly. Whereas in the world’s system a position of great value requires strength, the Holy Spirit teaches a kind of life in which a position of great value requires weakness – vulnerability, fallibility, failing, frailty, foible, infirmity. The Spirit makes it possible to care for one another in our weaknesses. This is peace: the laying down of weapons of judgment against one another. In such a community, you have nothing to prove.

Re:Verse passage – Romans 14:17-19 (day two)

for the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. Vs. 17

How do you measure your faith? Do you look for a quantifiable measure that gives you comfort that you are on the right path? Do this, do that, eat this, don’t eat that. It is human nature to want to have some measuring stick to guide our journey. It is one of the reasons the law played such a large part of church history. The believers in Rome must have known this struggle all too well. Although it gives us a sense of peace to have a checklist, it is not the nature and character of the Holy Spirit. Righteousness, peace, and joy are harder to quantify, but are the essential markers for our spiritual growth. Try to explain it less, and live it more. You will certainly know the difference.

Re:Verse passage – Romans 8:26-27 (day seven)

I am in the midst of a DIY bathroom renovation… that began in May. Needless to say, I have a newfound appreciation for plumbers, electricians, handymen etc. The things that seem simple turn out to be projects in themselves. The most recent culprit: soldering the shower valve. I purchased a “Basic” Soldering Kit from the local hardware store. It claimed to have a trigger start that would light the torch for me. It worked! But the flame was too strong, so I turned it down… too far… the flame went out. I tried to restart it with the trigger,  but it wouldn’t stay lit long enough to be of use. Three trips to the hardware store later, I abandoned the trigger and settled for a manual start.

Driving back from the store I heard the Lord clearly, “When you become dependent on a mechanism to provide your spark, your flame will always burn out.” Trusting in events or programs alone to be the source of our spiritual well being will only result in a weakened flame. The Holy Spirit is sufficient. More so even, the Holy Spirit intercedes where I am insufficient. The Spirit is the spark that lights our flame and helps us to shine our brightest. Our mechanisms may change, but He stays the same!

Re:Verse passage – Romans 8:26-27 (day six)

…the Spirit pleads for us believers in harmony with God’s own will. Romans 8:27

This is a Trinitarian text. It captures the heart and mystery of the union of the Father, Son, and the Spirit…harmony. James, the brother of Jesus, wrote, “you don’t have because you don’t ask, and when you do, you ask with the wrong motives.” That’s the opposite of harmony; the Spirit never asks with the wrong motives, only ones in perfect alignment with the Father’s will.

Listen, when the Spirit pleads for us, the Father’s answer is always, always,

“Yes…my will be done.”

Why? Because of Trinitarian harmony. In all  life’s bumps and bruises this side of eternity,

our weaknesses (vs. 26), or what we suffer now (vs. 18), 

the Spirit asks and acts to fulfill the Father’s will, His Son-exalting, Jesus-conforming will.

Can’t think of a greater guarantee than that. I can hold on to that, even when I can’t see or feel what God is doing,

especially when life hurts the most. Harmony.

Re:Verse passage – Romans 8:26-27 (day five)

“In the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness… but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words… because He intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.”

Isn’t the Holy Spirit amazing?  We are told (and rightly believe) that the Lord is watching us. Proverbs 5:21, “For a man’s ways are before the eyes of the Lord, and he ponders all his paths”. In the same way, we also believe that God knows us- Psalm 139.  And with the power and presence of the Holy Spirit, we can be encouraged that God understands us.  Being understood is one of our biggest needs.  How many parents have been told by their teenage children, “You just just don’t understand”?  Not so with our Heavenly Father. He has provided a means for us, even in our own confusion (distress, angst, suffering) or lack of understanding, a way to be perfectly (according to the will of God) understood. What peace, comfort, and confidence believing that truth can bring to the heart of a believer!!

Re:Verse passage – Romans 8:26-27 (day four)

I am a planner/organizer…I like to ‘fix’ things.  When I am confronted with a task or challenge, my mind immediately goes to a step-by-step solution to the problem.  It is a gift, but like every other spiritual gift, it can be used in the Spirit or out of the Spirit.  The danger for me is when I immediately go to my own solution and never seek counsel from the Holy Spirit.

Sometimes, the challenge is just too great!  It is so overwhelming that I cannot even see a way to fix it!  (Think…major health issue, global pandemic, or close friend that just will not turn to Christ!) It is then that I understand the ‘groaning too deep for words’.  My ‘need’ happens more often than I care to admit, but it is in these major events that I am confronted more clearly with my failure to follow the Spirit.

The Spirit is constantly at work in our lives.  Learning to walk in the Spirit is one of the key elements of becoming more like Christ.  How do we live every day, completely surrendered to the direction of the Holy Spirit?  Sounds like a question that needs ‘fixing’…in the Spirit!

Re:Verse passage – Romans 8:26-27 (day three)

“We do not know how to pray as we should.”

Perhaps the last thing you want to encounter is one more “should” in your life. How long is your list of “shoulds” already? Yeah. Same. This “should” is different, though. No, really. It isn’t announcing, “You’re doing it wrong.” Paul is simply saying that God is perfectly aware of how hard it is for you to speak of things that are painful to acknowledge even to yourself. It’s much easier to say, “Help me learn contentment” than to blurt out “I am grieving the loss of that dream I’ve had for so long.” It’s much easier to utter, “Help me know which way to go,” than to express, “Why have you left me here without any direction?” That’s why God’s Spirit groans. Each groan declares, “There’s more this soul must say.”

Re:Verse passage – Romans 8:26-27 (day two)

In the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words; and He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.

There is so much to consider when discussing the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives. The disciples at Pentecost were filled with the Spirit and able to boldly proclaim the truth of Jesus in every language. It was monumental in the establishment of the early church. Boldness is one of the characteristics that we often associate with the Spirit’s work. The disciples were already accustomed to telling others about Jesus’ life and work, but the Spirit enabled them to proclaim with a newfound authority.

The Spirit also works in our weaknesses. Areas of our lives where we are not confident, or even where our brokenness is most pronounced. A life lived in the Spirit is one that accepts that those areas can be used to glorify God. If you are redeemed, you are fully redeemed, even those areas where the only way you can grow is by the work of the Holy Spirit. Jesus knows our every weakness (by the Holy Spirit) take it to the Lord in prayer.