Finding The Holy Spirit...

A conversation I had the other day prompted me to pick up a small devotional book I bought a while back but never read. It's a book focused on the Holy Spirit in our lives. Each week it explores a different aspect. On the first day you really dive into scripture and then the rest of the week it challenges you to pray, fast, take action, and then reflect on what you have done.

The first week focused on the Holy Spirit as our firend. As some on you may have read in my previous blog a few weeks ago I felt like I was hiding in the shadows. I was lonely and depressed, so when reading this it really hit home. I know that I'm never really suppose to be alone, but I still felt like it. I (as I'm sure many others have done) had forgotten the Holy Spirit's place in my life. You hear it all the time, "In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit," but who/what exactly is it?

Ok, so the first day focused on scripture. The first reading came from the book of John and it is Christ speaking to His disciples explaining why it is neccessary for Him to leave them...

"I've told you these things to prepare you for rough times ahead. They are going to throw you out of the meeting places. There will even come a time when anyone who kills you will think he's doing God a favor. They will do these things becuase they never really understood the Father. I've told you these things so that when the time comes and they start in on you, you'll be well warned. I didn't tell you this earlier becuse I was with you every day. But now am on my way to the One who sent me... So let me say it again this truth: It's better for you that I leave. If I don't, the Counselor will not come. But if I go, I'll send Him to you."
(John 16:1-7)

Shortly before He left, He made this promise:

"I will talk to the Father, and he'll provide you another Friend so that you will always have someone with you. This Friend is the Spirit of Truth. The Godless world can't take Him in becuase it doesn't have eyes to see him, doesn't know what to look for. But you know Him already becuase He has been staying with you, and will now be in you!"
(John 14:16-17)

When Christ left His disciples, He never truly left them!

The same is for us, even though we can't see Him, He is there and He wants to be our Friend. The same God who created the world and everything in it, created us each unique and desires to have a close and intimate relationship with us. He wants to be our closest friend! How AMAZING is that!!!

Praying for Satan

We recently read a story in my freshman seminar class called, "The Inexplicable Prayers of Ruby Bridges" by Robert Coles. It was the story of a young black girl, Ruby Bridges, who challanged the educational system of New Orleans. During a time of segregation, she found herself in a white school. There she was met by angry mobs, who disapproved of her presence. The school was boycotted and even the local police refused to protect her. She had to be escoted through the mobs by federal marshalls. One day her teacher said she had seen Ruby talking to the people. Later when Ruby was questioned about it she explained that she was not talking to the people, but she was praying for them.

How amazing is that. She was not praying to God, asking for material things or even for herself. She prayed for the people, the same people who were only out to hurt her. She prayed for them because they had no idea what they were doing was wrong. She prayed for them because they could not pray for themselves.

Mark Twain had a similar idea when he said, "...who prays for Satan? Who, in eighteen centuries, has had the common humanity to pray for the one sinner that needed it most?" The sad thing is he was right. We get so caught up in caring for ourselves and the people we love that we fail to see that it is those who are against us that need our prayers the most.

If you believe in the power of prayer, and believe that prayer changes things, I challange you, just as I challenge myself, to pray. To pray hard for the "Satan" in your life. It is by the Grace of God we are saved, for no man is worthy of such Grace. May no man believe he is better than the next. We are all one and we all fall short. So pray for your brother, pray for your friend, but most importantly pray for your enemy.