The Holy Spirit and the Christian Life

Dear friends, if you’re struggling and suffering this morning, if you feel you’re running out of options, there is somewhere left to turn. There is a hiding place and a safe refuge with Jesus as He gathers around him all of us who are in need. We’re not meant to be the assembly of the shiny, the sorted and the successful. And we’re not impressing God with our brilliance and our strength. No we are together. The bruised reeds, the smothering wicks huddled together around our King Jesus.

Friends, it’s not incidental to God that he is a kind and loving Father. That’s not a role he’s stepped into or an act that he tries to pull off while inwardly just being transcendent and disinterested in you.When you pray the Lord’s Prayer and call him “Our Father” or “Abba, Father,” you’re not asking him to pretend for a moment he’s less like God and more like Jesus than he actually is. You’re putting your finger on the very essence of God.

Most of us are not good at prayer. Why is prayer often so difficult—even for the mature believer? In this session, Michael Reeves gets to the heart of our problem with prayer.

To “abide,” then, is not some special spiritual technique, but instead the posture of trust in Jesus, resting in his love (15:9), lived out in glad obedience to him (15:10). It’s joy-full (15:11). And every branch united to him in two-way friendship is guaranteed fruit that will stand the test of time.

When we feel abandoned, disheartened, or confused, God is listening. The Father is listening. Be encouraged my dear friend, whether whispering or screaming, he is listening to your every word.

To catch a glimpse of Jesus is to be intrigued. There has never been a man as wise, kind, good, and compelling. There has never been another man in whom we find all the fullness of God.

Even when our hearts are as cold and dead as winter, Jesus’ words blow in like an early spring breeze, warm and welcomed through the window, awakening us to himself.

You don’t need to wonder whether he is growing weary of you, whether he is secretly suspicious of you. He is the friend who sympathizes and is moved by our weakness. He is a friend who loves at all times (Pr. 17:17). His loyalty is unwavering, his correction is most tender, and his goodness and love pursue us all the days of our lives.

“This is my brother, all that is mine is his. Let’s celebrate. For this brother of mine was lost, but now is found.” Christ is not ashamed to call you brother. To call you sister. To call you family. He has joined you to himself and brought you into the same affectionate embrace that he enjoys with the Father.

We are still waiting. We long each day for the return of Jesus Christ. Until that day we’ll wait for him with perseverance, with joy, and with total confidence that he will come, and we’ll be with him forever.