05/28/2018
How does your life fit together with your faith? Does your life contain your faith, or does your faith contain your life? The answer to this question dictates how you will approach the Holy Spirit, and even more than that, what your perception of faith is. Will there be joy flowing from your faith, or will you study its details looking for perfection, and fail. Perhaps you have solved the mystery... that by living within our faith we find perfection and joy through Jesus alone. We are imperfect yet live encapsulated by the perfect sacrifice of Jesus, and surrounded in grace by the will of God.
“who has made us sufficient to be ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.”
2 Corinthians 3:6 ESV
I used to listen as my children read, and watched Winnie-the-Pooh on television. I loved the moral lessons, but I also loved the innocence with which Pooh approached the world; there was nothing that a jar of honey and a spot of tea couldn’t fix. He tried to approach life’s problems by thinking yet never quite succeeded at it... he didn’t realized how smart at heart he already was. He said things like:
“Some people care too much, I think they call it love.” - Winnie-the-Pooh
The other characters were all a bit like us, there was the wise owl, the pragmatic rabbit, the enthusiastic Tigger, and of course the innocent and ditzy Piglet. but the one that seemed to be the antithesis of Pooh was Eeyore the donkey. He was forever good at heart, but was flawed because he always saw the down side of everything. Here is a quote that I think is very telling. Eeyore says:
“Nothing to do, and no hope of things getting better... sounds like Saturday night at my house.” - Eeyore
So Pooh lived life as a mystery that could always be solved by a little more honey, and Eeyore lived in a world that was a place in which he could never succeed. Isn’t this how many of us approach our faith; some of us accept Jesus as our pot of honey, and live life in joy, while others of us see our inadequacies in the law, and find faith to be just too much?
Then there is Owl, who everyone believes is wise, but always seems to end up in the same predicaments as everyone else. I could go on, but we are all included within these characters in some form or fashion.... from new believer to saint, to Pastor.
Yet, Pooh lives in a good world, he is surrounded by perfection in hundred-acre-wood, and the only real problem he encounters is an occasional shortage of honey, or some other issue related to more honey. Sure, each story has its challenges, but are they real problems?
So let’s go back to the Holy Spirit, Jesus, and how they bring our faith to life, and redeem us in heart, mind, and soul...
“There are many who think they must only preach the Word, and that the Spirit will make the Word fruitful. They do not understand that it is the Spirit, in and through the preacher, who will bring the Word to the heart of the listeners.” - Andrew Murray
Andrew Murray is revealing more than just some advice for a Pastor, he is saying that we live surrounded by the Spirit, and that it moves through us to bring us the fruit of faith, which is joy. It is the Spirit that reveals Jesus, and the Word, much more than the Word reveals the Spirit. The Word tells us about the Spirit, but the Spirit shows us the true nature of Jesus Christ, the Word, and our faith. We can memorize the entire Bible, but it isn’t until the Spirit reveals it to us that faith will come alive in us... that Jesus becomes the Son of God. He tells us as much...
“It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life.”
John 6:63 ESV
There is one last Winnie- the-Pooh quote I would like to leave you with. Pooh is speaking of poetry, but it is true of the scripture as well...
“But it isn’t easy,” said Pooh. “Because Poetry and Hums aren’t Things which you get, they’re things which get you. And all you can do is go where they can find you.”
Are you ready to open your eyes to the fact that you live in the hundred-acre-wood of God, and that you aren’t just going in and out of it as a visitor who opens and closes a book? You aren’t being inserted into the story of the Word, you are already surrounded by it... it is your story... your life within the grand will of God. Where will you go that you can let Him find you... or more precisely... where you can at last find Him? How will you write your ending, and which character do you choose to play?
Prayer:
Father, thank you for allowing me to be born into your great and ongoing will for mankind, and all creation. Thank you for making me a part of your never ending story, and revealing this to me through your Holy Spirit. Thank you for allowing me to choose my path; to determine if it will be through the joy and redemption of Jesus, or as one of the lesser characters... perhaps lost in sadness and obscurity of faithlessness. Help me Merciful Father to be open to the Holy Spirit as He reveals the amazing truth of your Word, and the saving grace of the gospel of your Son Jesus Christ. Thank you for my life of contentedness in loving you, and the peace you bring me every day, but thank you most for the joy I find in Jesus. He is my pot of honey, he is my cup that runneth over, and he is the blood of my redemption that allows your goodness and mercy to rule my life within your will, and house, forever. Great are you Holy Father, and greatly are you to be praised! Holy, Holy, Holy, are you my God of joy, my perfecter, and the all in which I exist every day, now, and through eternity!
Rich Forbes