Open Doors

The Holy Spirit doesn’t dwell in us to give us what we need to accomplish our goals and dreams; he lives in us so that we can accomplish God’s will. We want to be a motorboat with the Holy Spirit as our motor: He gives us the power, but we are still in control — but God wants his followers to be sailboats. Sailboats are controlled by the power and direction of the wind. They are useless without the wind. As followers of Christ, our role is to be wind catchers. The Church, however, often defaults to being a motorboat. We become busy with a lot of activity that looks good and God-honoring, but it has nothing to do with the Holy Spirit’s guidance and everything to do with our own image and desires. We can do all of the “right” things and still be completely wrong if we aren’t submitting to the leading of the Holy Spirit in us. This is why the Holy Spirit is called “Advocate.” The Spirit is one who draws up close alongside us for our good. The Holy Spirit is our comfort, a counselor, a friend, and our help in times of need. When we become Christians, God gives us the mission of loving God, loving our neighbors, and making disciples, but how can we possibly do this on our own? This is why Jesus sent us the Holy Spirit. The Spirit is our Advocate to help us accomplish what God created us to do. He helps us to love God with our heart, soul, mind, and strength, to love our neighbors, and make disciples to grow God’s Kingdom. Without the Advocate we are purposeless and useless. With the Holy Spirit, we have everything we need. Reflection/Discussion Question: Do you find yourself wanting to be more like a motorboat or a sailboat when it comes to your relationship with the Holy Spirit?

Have you ever walked into your favorite store when you knew you didn’t have the money to get anything? It’s usually a sad affair. It’s almost as if you find more things that you want to buy when you know you can’t buy anything. But when you walk into that same store with a gift card in hand, suddenly, everything changes. Free from the limit of your own bank account, you walk in excited to see what you can find. Everything on the shelves is an opportunity instead of a disappointment. This is the idea Paul is getting at as we read “make the most of every opportunity” in Ephesians 5. When we live of this world, we are choosing to live life limited by our own strength, wisdom, abilities, money, time, and resources. Even when we do try to seize opportunities, we go for worldly opportunities that grow insignificant and finite resources for ourselves. We miss out on the life God has for us. But when we truly make the most of every opportunity, we rely on a limitless God instead of our own limits. Rather than chasing worldly pursuits that have an expiration date, we pursue eternal work that grows the kingdom of God. When we live this way, everything in our lives is an opportunity to change eternities and bring God glory. We are intentional and strategic about how we spend our resources because they are gifts from God to be redeemed.  Ephesians 3:20 says, “Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine according to his power at work within us” (NIV). Although our eternity is secure in Jesus, our lives on this earth are finite. As we finish our lives on earth, we can intentionally buy up all the time we’ve been given to spend our lives for the sake of the Gospel. Then, we will see God do “immeasurably more than we could ask or imagine.” Reflection/Discussion Question: How have you been spending your time lately?

There are a lot of people around me returning from the war from Ukraine, people who saw things they shouldn't have seen and went through other things that I hope I will never see. These people are trying to start living anew, as if all this did not happen in their lives and do not understand how this can happen in the 21st century? I pray for all these people, and when I go to church, I want to say that all the churches of Russia and Belarus pray that this war will end as soon as possible and we will live in peace again, because we all have relatives in Ukraine, the closest people. I thank God that I have the opportunity to at least listen to people and be their support, to pray for those who have never believed in God and every day tell these people about how God loves them and to see these people in my church every new Sunday.