John 3:8 “ The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.” This episode talks about a daily devotional from a book called "Jesus Calling." It discusses how important it is to be open to how the Lord is working in your life. Music:"Adding the Sun" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Hello all, before I get started with today’s episode I just want to mention that I started this podcast one year ago today. I can’t believe it’s been a year already! I really didn’t know what I was doing and am thankful for my brother John and his wife Rebecca for walking me through how to get started. I am so grateful for each and everyone of you that has listened to this podcast. Whether you listened just once or whether you listen each day. I am honored you choose to spend part of your day with me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus. I have grown so much over this last year by spending time each day with a scripture verse or two and I hope you have too! I love you all, thank you for your support and company on this journey.
A Bubbling Spring of Joy
John 3:8 “ The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”
Today’s scripture verse came from my daily devotional book that I have started reading. A very good friend of mine, who’s witness you heard a few weeks ago, recommended this book. This book helped introduce her to Jesus and I thought it would be a good addition to my morning routine. The daily devotions are written as though it is God talking to you. They are really beautiful and can really make you think some days. Today’s devotional touched me, actually it is from June 13th, but I was a few days behind and so I caught up this morning. Remember when we talked awhile ago about God not expecting perfection? My being behind on my devotional is a great example. It’s ok if you get behind. Just pick back up where you left off. No one but you is keeping score, so just let it go.
I want to read the June 13th devotional to you because I think God was talking to each one of us for this one.
“I am creating something new in you: a bubbling spring of joy that fills over into others lives. Do not mistake this joy for your own or try to take credit for it in anyway. Instead, watch in the light as my spirit flows through you to bless others. Let yourself become a Reservoir of the spirits fruit. Your part is to live close to me, open to all that I am doing in you. Don't try to control the streaming of my spirit through you. Just keep focusing on me as we walk through this day together. Enjoy my presence, which permeates you with love, joy, and peace.”
Isn’t that beautiful? God is creating something new in us, a bubbling spring of joy that fills over into others lives. Have you noticed that our lives always spill over into others lives? Have you even been in a bad mood and then noticed that your bad mood spread to others and now they are having a bad mood? The reverse can happen too. You can be in a great mood and your great mood can spread to others. This is why it is so important to be mindful of our mood and what we are sharing with those around us. Are we spreading joy or pain? This is one reason I like this devotional so much. God is saying that He is creating a bubbling spring of joy. He also tells us not to control the streaming of His Spirit through us. This is great. That means we can let God do the work when it comes to filling us with joy and showing us how to spread that joy to others.
Often times we think we need to do it all ourselves. We think we need to figure out how to spread God’s love and joy to others. God is reassuring us here that we don’t have to figure out how to do any of it. He said our part is to live close to Him and to be open to all He is doing. This last part can be harder than we think. Being open to what He is doing is something that is easy to agree to and hard to actually do. How easy do you think it would be to be open to His plan when you don’t understand His plan? Sometimes we don’t understand why God is asking us to do something and so it is harder to be open to it. It is also harder to be open to it if He is asking us to do something that is outside of our comfort zone. If we struggle with being open to God’s plan, all we need to do is pray for Him to open our hearts and mind. I also like how God tells us in this devotional to not try and control the streaming of His spirit through us. Just keep our focus on Him and He will do the rest.
Our verse for today says, ““ The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.” This is so true and so powerful. We do hear the sound of the wind, we can even feel the wind, and yet we don’t know where it is coming from or where it is going. The Holy Spirit has often been described as like the wind. I have heard people say that when you feel the wind upon your face think of it as the breath of God. I love imagining myself standing there on a windy day feeling the wind all around me and thinking it is the breath of God. I never really wondered though where the wind was going and where it came from, have you? I think we don’t worry about where the wind is going or coming from because God is in control of the wind. He knows what He is doing. We don’t have to worry. I don’t know if that was a big a ha moment for you or not, but it felt like it was for me.
When that thought came to my mind I instantly thought, ‘Oh, I get it. We are worrying in our lives because we are not letting God be in control.” Or maybe we are not trusting that He is in control. Are you holding back control of your life? Are you trying to figure it all out on your own? Are you worrying because you don’t trust that God has got this, that He knows what He is doing? If so, you are not alone, we all do this. We want God to be in control, but we don’t know how to let go of the control. We want to trust God and yet, we have been let down by others so often that we find trusting others, even God, really difficult. In the devotional above it shows us that God knows we have trouble letting go of the control. This is why He tells us not to try to control the streaming of His spirit through us. He tells us to just keep focusing on Him as we walk through this day together. When we are struggling with worry, or letting go of control, we need to shift our focus to God and keep our focus on Him throughout the whole day. He is the one to rely on.
I will leave you with the words from the devotional again as I think they are really powerful and I believe God is talking to each and everyone one of us through this devotional. I hope you look at the show notes and re-read these words. I hope you spend some time thinking about them and what they mean to you. How could you implement these words into your life? Imagine your heavenly Father speaking these words directly to you. How would you reply?
“I am creating something new in you: a bubbling spring of joy that fills over into others lives. Do not mistake this joy for your own or try to take credit for it in anyway. Instead, watch in the light as my spirit flows through you to bless others. Let yourself become a Reservoir of the spirits fruit. Your part is to live close to me, open to all that I am doing in you. Don't try to control the streaming of my spirit through you. Just keep focusing on me as we walk through this day together. Enjoy my presence, which permeates you with love, joy, and peace.”
Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening to this episode today. Lord, we want to be open to all that you are doing in our lives. If we are not, please help us. Lord, help us to live close to you. Help us to not try and control everything. Help us to just focus on you and walk through our days with you. Lord, you are so amazing. You are the almighty one and we are grateful for you. We say yes to you Lord, yes to you creating something new in us, Yes to spreading your love, joy and peace to others. We love you Lord and we ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’ holy name, Amen!
Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus. I look forward to spending time with you tomorrow. Have a blessed day!