Filled, but not with Mittens

A school teacher was helping her kindergarten student put on his boots but despite her pushing and pulling they didn’t want to go on. Finally as she was seeing some success the little guy said, “They’re on the wrong feet”  She looked down and sure enough he was right.   It was harder getting them off though but she managed to maintain her cool and together they got the boots on the right feet when the little tyke uttered, “These aren’t my boots !”  She bit her tongue rather than scream “WHY DIDN’T  YOU SAY SO !!”

So once again she struggled helping him to pull off his boots. No sooner had they did this when the boy said “They’re my brother’s boots. My Mom made me wear ’em”  Now she didn’t know whether to laugh or cry, so she mustered up what grace she had left to once again to try and put the boots back on him again.   Helping him with his coat she asked, “Now where are your mittens?” He smiled and said, “I stuffed ’em in the toes of my BOOTS !!”    Ever have one of those days?   You know the kind Mom said you would have?!  We all have them don’t we? Some call it Murphy’s Law, the Bible would explain it as a world that’s broken and sooner or later it affects each of us.

What you do is similar to what that teacher did, you draw from His strength.  Is it any wonder Jesus taught us to pray, “And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil” ! (Mt.6:13).   Doesn’t it then make sense that Paul wrote and commanded us to “be filled with the Spirit”. I like to explain that to our church folks that the command is a present tense verb in the Greek and means that obedience then is to be a constant, anything less is sin when we aren’t controlled or submitted to Him.  So we do sin a good bit and when we do, yes we are to confess and get right back in His good graces (fellowship as well as power to overcome whatever threatens us). So this filling of the Spirit is not as the charismatics claim “speaking in tongues” or we’d be in sin the moment we stopped our babbling !  It is His control of our life and cessation of that is the sin. But when we are walking in fellowship with Him it makes it easier to laugh, or cry, or persist than to just lash back at a little boy or whomever.

We tend to minimize the great importance of being filled with the Spirit, yet its a must for each of us especially living in a fallen world. And when you are under His control you have a great opportunity to show the Lord through YOUR life and attract folks to Him. What a ministry !! The “treasure is in earthen vessels” .   Is there some sin you need to confess, do so now.  And ask the Lord to be just that right now: your Lord. Then enjoy the grace He provides when he truly is, He can get you through anything when He’s in charge of you !!