Tag: <span>god’s plan</span>

Fill’er Up
Published November 26, 2021

Fill’er Up

Lord, May I look to you daily for the filling of your Spirit as you empower me to do your will. 

“Be filled with the Spirit” Ephesians 5:18b

Whenever driving in Oregon, U.S.A, I sit in the car while the gas station attendant comes out to the car and asks, “Fill’er up?” Oregon is one of the few states that does not have a driver pump their own gas. I think it is a treat to have someone else fill up my gas tank.

Wouldn’t it be great if life were the same way? That when peace is needed, it could be poured in. When love is needed, it could be poured in. These are just two of the listed fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5:22-23 – love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.

Interestingly, just before these fruit are listed there is a challenge to be filled with the Holy Spirit.  If God challenges us to do something, then we can know that this is his will and he will make it happen if we ask him.

I have to tell the gas attendant what I need and want at the gas station; the same is true for God. I need to tell him that I want and need him to fill me with his Spirit. What’s even greater is that God already knows exactly what we need and he is ready to give it to us in his perfect timing!

Other things in life will not give me the peace that I want. Not getting drunk with wine or trying to anesthetize from the pain of life. Solutions outside of Christ can only provide temporary relief to the deeper longings within me.

Ask God to fill you with the Spirit each day. As you reflect on the fruit of the Spirit, imagine what it would be like to have any or all of those particular characteristics true of you. Life is challenging, but God wants to fill you up with power from his Spirit.

Lord God, fill me with your Spirit today. I want to experience the power you give and all that you have to offer in life including freedom from the enemy and sin. May I look to you daily for the filling of your Spirit as you empower me to do your will. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Remember that your life is God’s, that he is filling you with his Spirit, and that he is faithful to direct you step-by-step as you obey his will in his strength.

By Jan Stewart
Used by Permission

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Further Reading

• Understanding the Holy Spirit

•  Spiritual Oxygen: Are You Getting Enough?

•  Salvation Explained

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thoughts by Jan Stewart Thoughts by Women

A Passion to Obey
Published August 30, 2021

A Passion to Obey

A passion to obey God doesn’t come naturally. Salvation may spark love and a desire to please Him, but a passionate fire is built slowly from the timbers of spiritual knowledge, faith, and devotion.

Obedience usually begins with a fear of the consequences of disobeying. That is, newer believers can at least enjoy the safety of avoiding repercussions until they develop better reasons to follow God. Thankfully, as we mature and build a scriptural foundation, fear is replaced by both recognition of God’s sovereignty and submission to His wisdom.

Over time, following the Lord becomes less about consequences for disobeying and more about blessings for obeying. Once we taste His goodness, we learn that obedience and God’s best are natural partners—good derives from following divine commands, while suffering results when we demand our own way. This irrevocable principle plays out in the Bible as well as in day-to-day life, and the more we observe it, the more we realize the Lord’s will is the wisest choice.

All the promised blessings in the world cannot make a believer follow God into some frightening places. But that’s where love for our Father comes in, as it compels us toward obedience no matter what is at stake.

Romans 6:16-23
16 Do you not know that when you present yourselves to someone as slaves for obedience, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin resulting in death, or of obedience resulting in righteousness? 17 But thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were committed, 18 and having been freed from sin, you became slaves of righteousness. 19 I am speaking in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness, resulting in further lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness, resulting in sanctification. 20 For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. 21 Therefore what benefit were you then deriving from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the outcome of those things is death. 22 But now having been freed from sin and enslaved to God, you derive your benefit, resulting in sanctification, and the outcome, eternal life. 23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

By Dr. Charles Stanley
Used by Permission

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Further Reading

•   Should I Pray Every Day? 
•  God Listens to Us
•  Salvation Explained

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thoughts by Charles Stanley Thoughts by Men