Daily devotion: Refining things in our lives.
“If God called His Holy Spirit out of the world, about 95% of what we are doing would still go on—and we would brag about it!”
This blunt statement about church programs by Dr Carl Bates of Amarillo, Texas, was coupled with an equally confronting question posed to ministers at the annual Baptist Statewide Conference on Evangelism in Columbia, Southern California:
“What are you doing that you can’t get done unless the power of God falls on your ministry?”
That question should stop every believer—and especially every servant of God—in their tracks.
This week, with that thought firmly in mind, let us make sure we have truly given our tasks to the Lord, asking Him to guide and direct us in each one. Let us examine what we are involved in and honestly ask: Is this dependent on the Holy Spirit, or could it continue just as well without Him?
Now is a good time to stop wasting energy on things the Lord has not asked us to do or be involved in. It is a good time to lay aside activities that keep us busy yet produce godless outcomes, and instead focus wholeheartedly on those things God has clearly willed for us to do.
The Christian life is not about running every race—only the one God has set before us.
Hebrews 12:1
“Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us.”
May we run that race—not in our own strength, but in full dependence upon the power of the Holy Spirit.