Online Devotions: Stopping God

Sunday, April 8, 2018

Stopping God

April 8 (1 Corinthians 2:13)

[W]e speak words given to us by the Spirit, using the Spirit’s words to explain spiritual truths. (ESV)

Do you realize how much power human beings have? We can be laid low by a cold or a papercut, but we are so powerful that we can actually stop God from accomplishing His will. We only have to say no.

Jesus promised to send the Holy Spirit, and so He did. The Holy Spirit lives within us and, among other things, He speaks to us the words of God. When we need to offer a word of encouragement or rebuke, when we need to explain or teach a matter of spiritual significance, God does not leave us on our own. He speaks through the Holy Spirit and gives us what we need to say. Yet unbelievably we thwart this divine guidance with our second-guessing. We waffle, we reconsider, and we hesitate. We become Prufrock, the pathetic character in Eliot’s poem, for whom “in a minute there is time/For decisions and revisions which a minute will reverse.”

Bold is the life lived in Jesus Christ. When we are fully surrendered to Him, when we see everyone and everything through His gaze, we can speak and act confidently in this world, for it will not be we who speak and act, but rather God working through us. Yet we can always resort to weakness, and with fear and timidity halt the very plans of God.

Lord, may every inspiration of the Holy Spirit find its fulfillment in my words and deeds. May I die to myself so that, fully alive in You, I may be Your willing servant on earth. When I pray as You taught, that Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven, may I be Your good instrument and never an obstacle to the working out of that will. In the name of Jesus, Who was obedient even to the cross, amen.

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History of Online Devotions

In January of 1999, I began the Online Devotions with the teens of the church we were attending. Each week they would receive a verse of Scripture, a short reflection, and a prayer. Over the years others subscribed to this email list, and soon the Online Devotions were going out to people across the country and beyond.

In 2007 I published in book format a collection called Desert Days: Forty Devotions for Men.

After suggestions from several readers, I launched in 2010 the Online Devotions blog. Devotions are still available each week by email, and if you would like to subscribe, please indicate so in the comment box.

As I have always said, if one of these devotions touches you, you can be sure it was from God. If one leaves you flat, then there was too much of me in it.