Living in the Spirit
June 5, 2022
Scripture Reading:
John 14:8-17, (25-27)
‘If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever. This is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, because he abides with you, and he will be in you.
‘I have said these things to you while I am still with you. But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything, and remind you of all that I have said to you. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid. –John 14:14-17, 25-27
I acquaint advocacy with what Senator John Lewis called “good trouble.” He, indeed, was an advocate to model one’s life after. A gentle man who forcefully stood for the right and yet, did his fair share of stirring up good trouble. Doing what is right is often dangerous as Senator Lewis found out as a young man when he crossed the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama. It seems almost counterintuitive to link the work of the Holy Spirit with peace as it applies to advocacy. The peace being described in the above scripture is the peace that passes understanding. (See Philippians 4:6) Such peace comes from doing what is right in God’s eyes not as defined by humans. I think of the devout Saul of Tarsus who just knew that he was doing right in persecuting the Christ-followers of the first century until he had an encounter with Jesus on the road to Damascus.
Our challenge as advocates today is to make sure we are doing what is right in God’s eyes. It is election season in the USA, and we are hearing all kinds of pronouncements on what is right and what is wrong with our country. We need to be very sure our lines of communication with the Holy Spirit are not cluttered with cultural filters blocking the Spirit’s truth from reaching our hearts and minds.
Prayer: Take our lives and let them be consecrated Lord to thee* in all that we do. Amen.
Derived from the hymn Take My Life and Let It Be by Frances R. Havergal. See at https://hymnary.org/text/take_my_life_and_let_it_be
All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights are reserved.