Sputter or Hum?
Theme of the Week: Converting to Wind Power
Thursday, October 1, 2009
 1 of 1
Key Bible Verse: I … pray to the Father … that … he will empower you with inner strength through his Spirit. Then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him. (Ephesians 3:14-17). Bonus Reading: Ezekiel 37:1-14
A couple of summers ago, my two boys and I bought a lawn mower. They earned spending money mowing lawns with it. The mower operates on a mixture of gasoline and oil. If it runs on gasoline alone, it's just a matter of time before it burns up.
Living without the presence of God in our lives is like running the mower that way. We function as best we can but never achieve our potential and eventually break down. The coming of the Spirit of God into your life is like putting oil in the machine. If his Spirit is in us, we live life to the full, even beyond the grave.
Here's how what Paul prayed for his friends [in today's Key Bible Verse] happens. Jesus said a change must take place in your life every bit as dramatic and important as your own physical birth. Maybe this is what Tennyson had in mind when, frustrated with himself, he cried out [today's Thought to Apply]. In a sense that's what happens. Who we are doesn't cease to be. But the presence of Christ comes into our lives and helps us become who we want to be.
—John Yates in Preaching Today
My Response: I'll thank God that the Spirit in my life guarantees that "these dying bodies will be swallowed up by life" (2 Cor. 5:4).
Thought to Apply: Oh, that a man might arise in me, that the man I am might cease to be!—Alfred Lord Tennyson
Adapted from our sister publication Preaching Today (#87). All rights reserved by the copyright holder and/or the publisher.
Copyright © 2009 by the author or Christianity Today International/Men of Integrity magazine.
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I'm not strong enough, Lord, to live up to your standards on my own. Teach me how to rely on the internal power your Spirit provides.
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