Word for Today, Fri, 14 May 2004: Help From the Holy Spirit
Posted by: masinick <masinick@...>
Dear friends,
Each day, God demonstrates His love to us, yet so many of
us fail to recognize what God has done, even when the evidence
is right in front of us.
Do you believe that God cares about you, about me? I believe He
does, I know He does.
This message from Neil Anderson helps us consider and understand
one aspect of that great love, provided to us through the help of
the Holy Spirit.
My prayer for each one of us is that God's Holy Spirit would
empower each of us right now, first to appreciate God and return
our appreciation to Him through lives that are completely
surrendered to Him. Then I pray that God would use our
surrendered lives to accomplish His purpose in each of our
surrendered lives.
Are you ready for that? I pray the answer is yes.
Yours in Christ,
Brian
____________________________________________________________
NEIL ANDERSON'S DAILY IN CHRIST
from Freedom in Christ Ministries
May 14
HELP FROM THE HOLY SPIRIT
The Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know how to
pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with
groanings too deep for words. . . . He intercedes for the saints
according to the will of God (Romans 8:26, 27).
We really don't know how to pray or what to pray for, but the
Holy Spirit does and He will help us in our weakness. Help is a
fascinating word in Greek (sunantilambano), two prepositions
placed in front of the word take. The Holy Spirit comes
alongside, bears us up, and takes us to the other side. The Holy
Spirit connects us with God. He intercedes for us on our behalf.
The prayer that the Holy Spirit prompts us to pray is the prayer
that God the Father will always answer.
How does the Holy Spirit help us in our weakness? I didn't know,
but one evening while preparing a message on the topic of praying
in the spirit I tried something. I said, "Okay, Lord, I'm setting
aside my list, and I'm going to assume that whatever comes to my
mind during this time of prayer is from You or allowed by You.
I'm going to let You set the agenda." Whatever came to my mind
that evening was what I prayed about. If it was a tempting
thought, I talked to God about that area of weakness. If the
busyness of the day clamored for attention, I discussed my plans
with God. I dealt with whatever came to my mind.
I wasn't passively letting thoughts control me though. I was
actively taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ
(2 Corinthians 10:5). Let me warn you that if you passively
listen to your thoughts, you may end up paying attention to a
deceiving spirit (1 Timothy 4:1).
If you try this kind of praying, you will find out how personal
God really is. If God determined and prioritized our prayer list,
He would begin with personal issues that affect our relationship
with Him. "Come on," God says. "You keep telling others you have
a personal relationship with Me. Let's get personal!"
Lord, teach me what it means to pray in the Spirit at the deep,
personal levels of our relationship.
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This daily devotional is published and distributed by
Crosswalk.com. It is written by Neil Anderson at
link.crosswalk.com/UM/T.asp?A1.14.21903.1.293748.
Additional devotionals are available from Crosswalk.com:
link.crosswalk.com/UM/T.asp?A1.14.21903.2.293748.
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--
Brian Masinick, mailto:masinick@yahoo.com
Home page: http://www.geocities.com/masinick/
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