January 12th

The Promise of the Presence of the Power of the Holy Spirit

But now God has set the members, each one of them, in the body just as He pleased. And if they were all one member, where would the body be? But now indeed there are many members, yet one body. 1 Corinthians 12:18-20

Do you remember back to when you were inside your mother’s womb?

No, obviously not, but if you could, it’s not hard to image God’s voice speaking over you, His hands carefully crafting you, His heart dreaming ahead into your life of all the things you might become. He is, after all, a good Father and the Creator of us all.

In that creation, God put into the very core of us which part of His body we were called to become. This part of us lay dormant like a seed until the Holy Spirit filled us upon conver-

sion and brought life to that God-given identity and calling with which we were born.

Now we face a choice. Will we allow the Holy Spirit to determine our identity, to tell us where we fit in the body of Christ? Or will we insist that we know better than Him, forcing our way into what we want the most or think we’ll like the best?

This should be a silly question. In fact, it should not be a question at all. Obviously, if God is good and trustworthy-and we are believing that He’s good and trustworthy enough to save us from our sins and give us Heaven, after all-then we should trust that whom He created us to be will be the most fulfilling and life-giving identity we could have, beyond all we could accomplish for ourselves.

Nevertheless, oftentimes we come to church and strive to be like the people around us. Or we strive to be like the leadership up front. Some insecurity about who we are tells us that we need to stand in front of the congregation to be important. We need to be on a board. We need to teach a class. We need to be seen.

Nonsense. We need to be the part of the body that God determined we would be.

Submit your life to the Holy Spirit today and allow Him to determine your steps. Let Him set you apart for service in the body and make your time in church about those around you instead of yourself. Then, and only then, will you find the fulfillment you desire.

Prayer Holy Spirit,

Thank You that You know more about me than I do! I give my life to You today and ask that You help me become the part of Christ’s body You created me to be.

Amen