“Be filled with the Spirit,” says in Ephesians 5:18
We were driving from Sacramento to Pacific Grove this past weekend. I was driving a Toyota RAV-4 Hybrid that gave me good gas mileage. I knew that I had enough gasoline for the whole trip. I was wrong. I overestimated the capacity of this car. The alarm got off in the middle of I-680, suggesting low fuel. The next nearest gas station was about 5 miles from where I noticed the alert. I was confident that I would make it to refill my tank. I was right. That’s not the point. The lesson was to ensure you always have enough gas on the road trip.
Like a gas tank, the Spirit of God must fill and refill our souls. If you are not paying attention to the state of your soul, you may already be experiencing spiritual dehydration. If not quickly attended to, it may cause weakness, confusion, and inability to stay healthy. Inquiry: When was the last time you experienced what is enough is not enough? How did you handle a situation where you thought you had complete control, yet it still did not work how you wanted it to? When did you put a pause on doing something that you care about most because you don’t think and feel that you had enough energy to push it forward?
In his book, IF: Trading Your If Only Regrets for God’s What If Possibilities, Mark Batterson writes, “First things first: you cannot be filled with the Holy Spirit if you’re full of yourself.” Emptying yourself needs to happen if we want the Spirit of God to come into our lives. Not for a moment, but filling the Spirit is a continuous action.
What if you started opening up your soul to God’s filling in of the Spirit? In what specific aspect of your work and life were you needed most the coming in of the Spirit? What obstacles must be overcome to experience the flowing in of the Spirit daily?
In this season of Lent, let us open our whole being to God’s coming into our lives.
Prayer:
Spirit of the living God,
Fall afresh on me.
Spirit of the living God,
Fall afresh on me.
Melt me, mold me, fill me, use me.
Spirit of the living God,
Fall afresh on me.
Amen.
