A Glory Seed Devotional
The coming and fulfillment of a promised blessing/gift…
“I lift my heart up to you, Lord, to thank you for the blessings you shower on me each day. You are the 'joy of my soul.' I know that in your great love, I am held and protected by you. I pray and listen to the good news you send; I ask and feel the healing. I am freed by you from the things in this world that let me hide from you. I rejoice, I rejoice, down to my soul. Help me to prepare my heart to be open and able to receive your immense love.”**
The birth of Jesus is the coming and fulfillment of a promised blessing/gift Jesus made as an adult. “But I tell you that I am going to do what is best for you. That is why I am going away. The Holy Spirit cannot come to help you until I leave. But after I am gone, I will send the Spirit to you… The Spirit will show you what is true. The people of this world cannot accept the Spirit, because they don’t see or know him. But you know the Spirit, who is with you and will keep on living in you.” (John 16:7, 14:15–17, CEV)
The promised blessing/gift I am referring is the birth of the Holy Spirit. But the Holy Spirit is not just a onetime gift, working on behalf of God the blessings of the Holy Spirit keep coming and coming. This morning’s Advent Prayer is not only an acknowledgment of the ongoing giftedness of the Spirit but a prayer of thanks as well.
In Connecting the Testaments daily devotional for today author John D. Barry writes, “We have all made mistakes. We’ve all lost ourselves in the storms—in storms we caused and storms that came upon us for no apparent reason. But what’s certain in both instances is that God is with us and desires for us to be one with Him.”
Jesus’ birth, the fulfillment of Jesus’ promised blessing/gift of the Holy Spirit can be summed up like this… “But you know the Spirit, who is with you and will keep on living in you… God is with us and desires for us to be one with Him.”
Immanuel…
Anticipate…
Experience…
Believe…
Celebrate…
Be transformed!
Grace and PEACE,
Gary
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Jesus said, “I am the light for the world! Follow me, and you won’t be walking in the dark. You will have the light that gives life.” (John 8:12, CEV)
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Scriptures marked CEV, “Scripture taken from the Contemporary English Version © 1991, 1992, 1995 by American Bible Society, Used by Permission.”
**“Taken from Praying Advent, on Creighton University's Online Ministries web site:
http://onlineministries.creighton.ed...ry/online.html
Used with permission.”