Today is Monday, the tenth of October, 2022, in the 28th week of Ordinary Time.
May the peace of Christ reign in your soul today!
Day 23,587
Last morning in Glen Rose. We must check out by 11:00 so this might be brief.
TODAY’S DEVOTIONAL AND PRAYERS
Lord our God, we praise your name because you have set up a mercy seat on earth, because you forgive our sins through the blood of Jesus Christ. May your mercy be seen at work in many hearts. Shed your light upon all people, and let your glory be known. Let your glory shine in all hearts, to the praise of your name and the deliverance of those who are still in misery. Keep us in your Word, which works miracles. Protect in us all that Jesus Christ has brought to the earth, and may we use his gifts in simplicity of heart. Grant that much may be accomplished to the glory of your name and that we may draw nearer to the day of Jesus Christ, for which we wait in hope and longing. Amen.
(Daily Prayer from Ploughing.com)
...for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of his blood – to be received by faith.
Romans 3:23–25a, NIV
Today I am grateful:
- to be fully justified by the redemption of Jesus Christ
- for this space of beauty, grace, prayer, and grace
- for the gifts of God; may I use them well
- for the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding
- for the workings of the Holy Trinity in our lives
May the glory of the Lord endure forever;
may the Lord rejoice in his works,
who looks on the earth and it trembles,
who touches the mountains and they smoke!
I will sing to the Lord as long as I live;
I will sing praise to my God while I have being.
May my meditation be pleasing to him,
for I rejoice in the Lord.
Bless the Lord, O my soul!
Praise the Lord!
Psalm 104:31-35 ESV
When I am afraid, I put my trust in you.
In God, whose word I praise,
in God I trust; I shall not be afraid.
What can flesh do to me?
Psalm 56:3-4 ESV
But now thus says the Lord, he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel: “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you.”
Isaiah 43:1-2 ESV
“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.”
John 14:27 ESV
Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with goanings too deep for words. And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.
Romans 8:26-27 ESV
I don’t remember much talk about the Holy Spirit when I was growing up. Growing up in a Southern Baptist Church, most of the emphasis was on evangelism, and worship services featured sermons that were either about that or the things we weren’t supposed to do. “A dancing foot never grew off of a praying knee,” and the like.
I am not belittling the pastor who said that. He was passing along things that he believed with all his heart.
Even as a young adult, there wasn’t much talk of the Spirit in our churches, except to scoff at or put down those “charismatics.” Not that they had it quite right, either, as most of their emphasis was on outward gifts of the Spirit, that made them look good and feel good about themselves . . . even if they were faking it. And, yes, the faked it. Just like some Baptists faked it.
The point is, over much of my life, the Holy Spirit has either been short-changed or over-emphasized.
Trying to understand the Trinity is a lot like trying to nail Jello to a tree. It’s pretty nigh impossible. But one thing we can understand is the love within the Trinity. On second thought, maybe we can’t. But we can try.
The Father loves the Son loves the Father loves the Spirit loves the Son and the Father . . . complicated, yes, and there is nothing like it in the whole universe. But each one of them points to the other two. All three are God, but not each other.
I’m not helping, am I?
When it comes to prayer, it is not just the Father or just Jesus or just the Spirit. We pray to the Father, through the Son, and we pray in the Spirit, who also prays through us, according to Romans 8:26-27. The entirety of the Trinity is involved in our prayers!
This is something worthy of our attention and consideration. That Psalm up there talks about trusting in “God” when I am afraid. This involves a right smart more than thinking about some “grandfatherly”figure sitting in the clouds, which I believe to be most people’s idea of God. It involves the power and love that is present in the three-in-one, the Holy Trinity.
This is the same power that raised Jesus from the dead.
. . . and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, . . .
Ephesians 1:19-20 ESV
If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.
Romans 8:11 ESV
“What the Father has purposed and the Son has procured can be appropriated and take effect in the body of Christ only through the continual intervention and active operation of the Holy Spirit.” (Andrew Murray)
So much for “brief.”
We need the Holy Spirit every bit as much as we need the Father and the Son. Let’s not ignore Him or short-change Him. But let’s not over-emphasize Him, either.
Father, thank You for the Holy Spirit, and His many works in our lives, from intercession to empowerment to gifting to encouraging to comforting. How much He does for us! And how little we acknowledge Him! Forgive us, Lord!
Thank for the demonstration of love that comes out of You, the Son, and the Spirit! Please help us to mimic that love in our own lives and relationships.
Thank You for Your peace! May it reign in me today and every day!
Even so, come soon, Lord Jesus!
"Love one another; This is how they know you're Mine; Love one another." (Inspired by John 13:34-35)
Grace and peace, friends!
Spaces of Beauty, Grace, Prayer, and Mercy 