Saturday, July 31, 2010

My Friend David Compared to the Holy Spirit

At night, when I sit still on my bed and try to talk to God, I have a bad habit of wanting to clip my fingernails or trim them or something. It's just a silly distraction, but I rarely notice that I'm no longer talking to God. So one night a couple weeks ago, I sat down and began to pray, but then I got distracted with my fingernails again. I became upset. I mentally scolded myself for being so disrespectful of God. In my anger, a thought popped into my head: "When my friend David spends the night and sleeps on the floor of my room, I never clip my fingers and ignore him. We talk till 3 am most nights! And when I had a girlfriend and would be with her, I wouldn't stare at my fingers and ignore her either. I'd talk to her! I wouldn't stop thinking about her! She would be on my mind 24/7 and I'd "love" her more each day! So why am I not like that with God?" That really stumped me. It hit me deep. I realized I probably didn't enjoy talking to God because it sometimes felt like I was talking to myself; in other words, it felt discouraging when no audible voice replied. But this is what made me see it: God talks through His Spirit. The Spirit isn't a person like Jesus, but instead is a spirit that lives inside me and counsels me and guides me and draws me closer to Jesus. I have to exert a special amount of attention and focus to talk to the Spirit, simply because He doesn't talk back like a human would. The Holy Spirit is Elyon literally living inside of me. I don't understand it, and I know in fact I can't. I don't know why God would care so much, but I'm not going to complain about His everlasting and undying love for me! I just desperately hope that I don't loose sight of the importance of talking to God and connecting with His Spirit.

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