Holy Spirit

How To Have a Silent Conversation

~ godisnotlikeyou ~ 8 Comments

I spend a lot of time counseling people with problems. The nature of what I do requires a fair amount of talking. Giving counsel and encouragement has become a way of life for me over the years.

Every once in a while however, something different happens. Like today.

Polly calls me every month. She is a woman with learning disabilities. She admits to not being able to follow directions or retain information. Consequently she’s unable to hold down a job.

Today was another one of those calls.

She told me she was being evicted and needed another place to live.

She exhausted that theme, and then launched into describing the conflicts she was having with her older sister.

She spoke for twenty minutes.

When she finished, I prayed for her.

“Thank you. You are a delight to talk to,” Polly said and hung up.

I smiled.

I had said nothing to her. All I did was listen.

And then this thought came to me, maybe from the Holy Spirit.

“You showed more grace and love in your listening than anything you could have said.”

It made me think.

Perhaps the Lord would make more of an impact on people through my silence.

Most people don’t want to be fixed.

They want to be loved.

What do you think? Leave me a comment.

Who’s Doing The Work?

~ godisnotlikeyou ~ Leave a comment

Who is responsible for your maturity in Christ? Is it all about you and your obedience or is all the Holy Spirit’s doing?

Do you have days when you feel you’ve done nothing but blow it as a Christian? You haven’t loved well, you ran out of patience, you didn’t think about God for an instant.

What does God think of you when you’re in that condition?

“Return to your baptism everyday,” Luther said. Remember you died in Christ, were buried in him, and were resurrected in him. All your sins are forgiven and washed away. God sees them no more.

Paul would say,

“For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. For if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him.” – Romans 6: 5-7

You have been set free to live as a believer in Christ.

Before faith, you were a slave to sin. You couldn’t love or serve God. The only things you could do were to:

1) live in darkness

2) provoke God’s wrath

3) heap judgment on yourself

But God, who in his mercy called you from death to life, who gave you the gift of faith to believe in Christ and him crucified, now enables you to freely love and serve him.

You are a freed slave learning to live as a free man or woman in union to Christ.

How does this work out in daily living?

Justifying faith is God acting upon you – you are a passive recipient. He changed your heart, he made you capable of believing the gospel. You didn’t produce that yourself. You had no power.

Sanctifying faith is accomplished by the Holy Spirit who causes you to desire God and enables you to obey God. This new action will result in your good works.

You will produce fruit.

So if you’re worried about how you’re doing, don’t be. Looking inside your heart will demoralize you. It’s not pretty in there.

The solution is to keep looking to Jesus.

He’s the author of your faith, and to God who will give you everything you need to keep loving and serving him.