Daily Devotional: Thursday, March 18
Speaker: Ben Sigman
Theme: The Holy Spirit
Weekend Music links on iTunes: Not to Us by Chris Tomlin; No Not One by Christy Nockels; Love Came Down by Ben Cantelon; Til I See You by Hillsong.
Read: John 14:15-21, John 16:13, 1 John 4:6
Think: Making good decisions isn't always easy. We wonder "which is the right way," and "am I doing it for the right reasons?" Sometimes we get stuck in indecision, because we are afraid of making the wrong one. When teaching me to drive, my dad said, "He who hesitates, is lost." This was especially true when pulling out into traffic. The philosopher, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe once said, "Each indecision brings its own delays and days are lost lamenting over lost days... What you can do or think you can do, begin it. For boldness has magic, power, and genius in it." Sometimes we don't know what is the best thing to do until we actually do it. Sometimes, this is not only a way of learning, this is the best way of learning.
When I was an intern working toward my licensing hours, my supervisor could tell I was afraid to do or say the wrong thing. I was green and insecure in my new profession and needed some encouragement to try new things. She said, "You're going to make mistakes. So if you're going to make them, might as well make them big and with confidence." She gave me permission to learn by failing. Good advice. I was in the safety of her oversight. She wanted me to learn, but she wasn't going to let me crash. It was a safe place to do "trial by error."
Jesus promised that the Holy Spirit wouldn't just be with us, but that He would be in us. Jesus said that the Holy Spirit would lead us into all truth. He didn't say that the road was going to be lined with flower petals and lolly pops- He just said that we would be led, and that we would know the truth. Sometimes the process of learning the truth is painful and hard. Sometimes being lead into all truth means facing embarrassing flaws and admitting we don't know it all.
The cool thing about the Holy Spirit is that, we are safe in His oversight. Like me with my supervisor, I had to be honest with her about what I was doing: what was working and what wasn't. I was submitting to her leadership, and she lead me into knowledge, experience and wisdom. When we submit to God's leadership, we come to Him with honesty and dependence and He will encourage us to be bold and keep going- mistakes, embarrassing moments, successes, big wins, major disasters and all.
Do: Write down a recent mistake you've made that taught you something about the truth.
Pray: Thank you Jesus, that you don't expect me to live life without making mistakes, but that mistakes are a part of the process, and you will lead me through them showing me truth and grace.Holy Spirit fill me and lead me as I boldly move forward under Your care and guidance! Amen.
The eDevotional is written each week by a team of volunteers from Timberlake Church. |
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