Devotional thought for this day

²¹  It is God himself who makes us, together with you, sure of our life in union with Christ; it is God himself who has set us apart, ²²  who has placed his mark of ownership upon us, and who has given us the Holy Spirit in our hearts as the guarantee of all that he has in store for us.
2 Corinthians 1:21-22 (TEV)

Many of us have grown up on the theology that accepts the Holy Spirit as a Person, and even as a divine Person, but for some reason it never did us any good. We are as empty as ever, we are as joyless as ever, we are as far from peace as ever, we are as weak as ever.

It is assuredly only by the effect of extreme love that we worms of the earth have been enabled to become the children of God, not by nature, but by adoption; and such is the immense grace that the Son of God has obtained for us by becoming man; for St. Paul says: You have received the spirit of adoption of sons, whereby we cry, Abba (Father).1 Can a subject wish for greater happiness than to be adopted by his king? or a creature to be adopted by its Creator?

EVER BLESSED TRINITY, to Thy mercy I commit this day, my body and soul, together with all my ways and undertakings. I beseech Thee to be gracious unto me; enlarge my heart and open my lips, that I may praise and magnify Thy Name which alone is holy. And as Thou hast made me for the praise of Thy holy Name, grant that I may yield my life a sacrifice to Thy honor in humble love and fear. Amen.

When I read Tozer’s words this morning, I felt convicted. I think it describes the church all to well. We know the Holy Spirit is a person in the same way that we know that Tom Brady is a person, or that Taylor Swift is, or that Abraham Lincoln was.

But do we relate to the Holy Spirit as a person? To we hear Him tell us of the love of the Father, do we realize the Spirit’s presenc ein our lives is the guarantee of our salvation? Do we even recongize His presence, His power in our lives?

Or is our faith week, and dependent on our will?

I urge you, take time during this Advent to evaluate your spiritual life. Is there room for the Holy SPirit to work, or are you just muddling on, as if the Holy Spirit was on a vacation, or was busy on the other side of the world. Consider the prayer of Loehe, a Lutheran pastor who knw how deeply dependent on God he needed to be. That is why he wrote that morning prayer for pastors – because we need to be reminded that the Trinity enlarges our hears, and opens our lips.

Get to know the Spirit, lean on Him to open the scriptures for you, so that you may in awe of the love God has for you.

And pray for me, that I may do so also.

A. W. Tozer and Marilynne E. Foster, Tozer on the Holy Spirit: A 366-Day Devotional (Camp Hill, PA: WingSpread, 2007).

Alphonsus de Liguori, The Holy Eucharist, ed. Eugene Grimm, The Complete Works of Saint Alphonsus de Liguori (New York; London; Dublin; Cincinnati; St. Louis: Benziger Brothers; R. Washbourne; M. H. Gill & Son, 1887), 48–49.

William Loehe, Liturgy for Christian Congregations of the Lutheran Faith, ed. J. Deinzer, trans. F. C. Longaker, Third Edition. (Newport, KY: n.p., 1902), 6.