The very nature of God's Spirit is to express power and to share it.
When so many feel powerless, it is good to know that God is generous, offering the Spirit's empowerment to all the world.
The offer is there for you now as well. Reach out, reach up for the power of the Spirit in your life.
And not only that, but we also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.
Romans 5:3-5
The bad news is that life can be hard. Relationships get broken, feelings get hurt, and loved ones get sick. We don’t like to think about it, but at some point in their lives, every human being on earth will suffer.
The good news is that God doesn’t want us to suffer. God’s plan for the world is to transform what’s bad into what’s good and do away with sadness and suffering forever.
Things won’t be perfect until heaven, but in the meantime the Holy Spirit works to take the challenges of life and use them to make us stronger and more like Christ — who suffered to save us.
Rebecca Poe Hays
God of grace, I pray that you will be with me when things get hard. Help me to rely on your Spirit to transform me into someone more like you. Fill me with your hope. Amen.
Come, Blazing Fire,
Anoint our tongues with the messages of peace;
Till, though blind, we see,
And deaf, we hear,
And imprisoned, find release.
Vicki Vogel Schmidt