Devotionals for the Heart: Humankind and The Holy Spirit that unites us

One in the Spirit
A devotional by Glynis Becker

“But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you.”
–John 14:26 (NASB)

The Holy Spirit is a mystery. I know that the Spirit is real and that God dwells with us as believers in the form of the Holy Spirit, but I admit that I don’t really understand it all.

I’ve always liked the metaphor of the Holy Spirit being like the wind and how we can’t see the wind, but we certainly know it’s real when we feel it or when we see the evidence of it.

Living in the Midwest has given me both a perspective on the wind and a grudging appreciation for it. Out here a 50 or 60 mph wind can come out of nowhere, scream across the prairie, shake the house, rattle the windows and be gone. In some places you can look miles away to see dust clouds and know that the wind is there. You can look at wind maps and see where the winds are the highest and where they are moving to. Amazing.

What if there was an app on my phone that I could open up and see where the Holy Spirit was moving at any given time? I’m trying to imagine what that might look like. Maybe it would show me what the Spirit is doing in the lives of people around me. Or maybe it would be a map with different colors for how well things are going in prisons or churches or governments. Maybe it would spur me on to help with missions work or sharing hope or giving encouragement. Maybe it would have an alarm that would remind me each hour that the Spirit is with me, that He is for me and that He is my comfort in all things.

I think more than anything, an app like that would remind me that all believers, regardless of doctrine, creed, or culture, are part of something greater. We are a multifaceted web of flawed humans, living our lives in a broken world. Our purpose should be one of unity and love through our shared connection of having the God of the Universe living inside of us, something I too easily and too often forget. We should all be trying to show the world the good news that Jesus loves them.

The old song “We are One in the Spirit” makes me think of evenings around a fire at camp. But more than just a pretty song, there is such a truth to it, especially in the line “They’ll know we are Christians by our love.” Looking at the world and its division even among believers, I sometimes wonder whether that has ever been or will ever be true.

But today, if I stay in connection with the Spirit through Bible reading and prayer, I’m much more apt to be in better connection with my brothers and sisters in Christ and the world might look a little more like what God intended. So maybe I don’t need an app after all!

Let’s Pray: Please help me see where your Holy Spirit would lead me, Lord. I want to be part of the work of your Spirit in this world. Give me a greater love for my fellow believers. Remind us of our connection to You and to each other and Your charge to love one another. In Jesus’s Name I pray, Amen.

~*~
Author Bio:

Glynis Becker writes devotions and inspirational fiction, hoping someday to have a published novel on her resume.

She has co-written several screenplays, including the film Sinking Sand, available on DVD and digital streaming.

Glynis, whose childhood was spent all over the country as an Air Force brat, has called South Dakota home for many years, along with her husband and two teenage children.

When she’s not writing or reading, she is watching more television than she should and crocheting. You can find her at www.glynisbecker.com.

Devotionals for the Heart: Road Trip

Anyone Ready for a Road Trip?
A devotional by Glynis Becker

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit.”

 – Galatians 5:22-25 (NASB)

“Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.” 

–James 1:3-4 (NASB)

Anyone who has lived in the Midwest knows that getting from one place to another often requires a long road trip. I’m sure this is probably true in other parts of the world as well, but it definitely feels like we Midwesterners have the corner on that market. In the fall of 2018, our daughter went off to a college northeast of where we live, and to visit her requires a five-hour-plus drive, which is a pretty short drive if you ask us locals.

We made an overnight trip there last weekend, and while my back hurt from sitting and I was bored looking out the window at one more dead corn field, I thought to myself how nice it would be to have a transporter like in Star Trek. One minute you’re here and the next minute you’re there. No long car rides, no legs falling asleep. Just the joy of being with the person you want to visit.

Then I suddenly recognized that the journey is part of the whole experience. If it didn’t take time to get from here to there, what might I miss out on?

The phrase “enjoying the ride” is not naturally in my vocabulary, but as I’ve gotten older, I realize how much we learn getting from point A to point B. I shouldn’t be in a hurry to dismiss the time spent “in-between.”

This probably isn’t a brand new thought for you, but it was good for me to have a reminder of several important things. The fact is, long journeys take patience. They take endurance and perseverance. If you are traveling with others, they take grace and kindness. They take wisdom and faith. They allow us to learn contentment and gratitude. In the end, we might even gain a good measure of peace from acquiring that batch of skills.

Funny, isn’t it, how those lessons look a lot like the fruit of the Spirit from Galatians 5:22 and the list that James wrote?

God rarely shows us a whole map. Sometimes we don’t even know exactly where we’re headed. But I love that no matter where we are going, He is already there. I love that He is with me while I’m traveling. And I love the thought that sometimes He will carry me when I’m too tired to continue on my own.

A journey starts with a step. Road trips can be fun. The journey through life will have many steps, a bit of fun, fellow travelers, and lessons to learn.

Let’s travel well, friends. And I promise I’ll wave and smile when we pass on the road.

My Prayer: Loving Father (God), thank You for being both the Way and the Guide. Forgive me when I am too focused on what I want and I miss out on what You have for me. Give me the wisdom and strength to help others as we journey together. In Jesus’s Name I pray, Amen.

~*~
Author Bio:

Glynis Becker writes devotions and inspirational fiction, hoping someday to have a published novel on her resume. 

She has co-written several screenplays, including the film Sinking Sand, available on DVD and digital streaming. 

Glynis, whose childhood was spent all over the country as an Air Force brat, has called South Dakota home for many years, along with her husband and two teenage children.

When she’s not writing or reading, she is watching more television than she should and crocheting. You can find her at www.glynisbecker.com.

Thankful Thursday: Acts of Kindness

It’s Thursday and I’m thankful for acts of kindness.

One act in particular stands out in my mind for two reasons: One, it’s fairly recent and two, it’s never happened to me before…Allow me to explain.

In October 2012, I relocated from the East Coast to the Midwest in order to take my first big break in Journalism. Well, things didn’t go as planned and long story short, by mid-December 2012 I was packing up my apartment in order to move back home.

During this time, I experienced a wide range of emotions with everything from being upset at the unfair situations beyond my control that caused me to need to leave to actually being happy because the state I moved to had freezing cold weather like I’d never before experienced.

Somewhere in the midst of my packing up my belongings and getting my apartment ready for the next tenant, I heard a knock at my door. After looking through the peephole, I recognized my neighbor from across the hall, Lindsey who worked as a school teacher and has two adorable kids who baked me cookies for Christmas (but that’s another story). I opened the door with a smile, always happy to see such a positive person. Lindsey returned the smile with a greeting and handed me a card inside of an envelope.

“Thanks,” I said as I took the card and entered into a brief conversation. 

After we spoke, I shut my apartment door and locked it. As I walked toward my kitchen counter, I opened the envelope fully intending to hang the card on my refrigerator door where I had posted all of my other Christmas cards from family and friends. But as I retrieved the card from the envelope and opened it, my eyes grew wide at the contents: Money! There was cash inside, plenty of it. I rushed back to my apartment door and into the hallway. In a matter of seconds, I was knocking on Lindsey’s door which she opened and greeted me with a knowing smile.

“Thank you so much!” I told her from the depths of my heart.

“You’re welcome,” Lindsey replied before giving an explanation. “I’d been thinking about your moving and praying about it and that is what God told me you needed.”

“Well I’m glad you listened to God!” I replied. “It is what I need, Lord knows!”

~*~

My neighbor’s act of kindness touched my heart and renewed my faith in God as Jehovah Jireh which means My Provider because He used Lindsey to help me meet a financial need.

Now that I’ve fully settled back into my home on the East Coast and am continuing my search for a better paying job, I know that God is with me because He spoke through events, people and acts of kindness when I was residing in the Midwest and He continues to work in my life today.

Are you facing a tough turn of events in your life? Are you unsure about the future? Take heart in my sharing one of the lessons I learned when I was away from home and that is simply, even when God is silent, He is still right there with me. Honestly, I’m facing the great unknown when it comes to my career and search for work but when fear tries to overtake me, I remember all the ways God provided for me through people’s acts of kindness. Therefore, I choose to keep trusting Him and move forward in faith because sometimes that’s all you can do.

It’s Thursday. What are you thankful for?