Listen

You didn’t receive a spirit of slavery to lead you back again into fear, but you received a Spirit that shows you are adopted as his children. With this Spirit, we cry, “Abba, Father.” The same Spirit agrees with our spirit, that we are God’s children. But if we are children, we are also heirs. We are God’s heirs and fellow heirs with Christ, if we really suffer with him so that we can also be glorified with him.

Romans 8:15-17

Think

Have you ever been around a baby who seems to use the same word or sound for everything, yet the parents somehow know exactly what the child is saying? Variations on “dah-dee” could mean anything from daddy to doggie to milk, and only the parent can understand.

I think the same is true of God and us. I think sometimes we struggle to articulate just exactly what we are thinking, feeling, or believing — but God understands us because we are children of God and have received the Spirit of God.

When words fail us, the Spirit speaks up for us. It’s a Spirit we share with God — so that God smiles on us with the love of a parent — and we belong together.

Lauren Holder

Pray

Loving God, you knit me in my mother’s womb and you know the words of my heart. Help me to receive your Spirit again today and every day. Amen.

Go

Let us go out into the world, rejoicing in the power of the Spirit!

Thanks be to God.

Book of Common Prayer