by Leigh Ann Dilley on January 13, 2021
Since it is a new year, it's time for some reflection. How do you define success? Most of us in the western world, including Christians, define success in material ways: a big house, a nice car, fancy clothes, money, a successful career, beautiful family, etc. Our culture tends to believe that if we are successful then we have earned power and authority. Successful lives provide us with self-confidence and self-reliance. In our culture, we strive for these things.
I admit, when I was young, my major motivation for wanting an education was to gain independence, confidence, and security. I wanted to be able to support myself. I didn’t want to be dependent on anyone. An education would allow me to be employable and would enable me to do “life” on my own, if needed, no matter what happened in my personal life. Consistent employment would also provide me with certain luxuries and my life would be stable and comfortable.
Fast forward 30+ years. Honestly, I still think education is a good idea, but my mindset of what success looks like has been through some major adjustments, especially my views on independence and confidence.
Consider the Holy Spirit. God promises to give us His Spirit when we decide to follow Jesus and accept the sacrifice Jesus made on the cross to forgive our sins. It’s through the Holy Spirit that God works His will through us. The spirit is powerful. Paul says this is the same spirit that raised Jesus from the dead. Through this spirit we are made strong in our weakness. The way we tap into the power of the Holy Spirit is to surrender and obey and depend on God to be the authority in our lives. Oddly, the words weakness, surrender, obey, and dependent are not associated with strength and power in our culture.
Herein lies a major mindset shift that needs to happen for us to live in the power of the Holy Spirit. Living in God’s will and allowing the spirit to work often means living outside of our own comfort zone. That can be scary. We’re not always confident things will work out. It also means our lives will look very different. Are we willing to do that? Do we trust God enough?
Let’s make 2021 a year to explore and commit to the Holy Spirit. Let’s learn to celebrate trials and weakness because we have a God who saves! He calls us children and has placed, in us, the very essence of Himself. We ourselves could never create this type of comfort, security and confidence. It could only come from God.
We will explore the Holy Spirit more over the next few weeks but for now, I want to give you 3 verses that bring me comfort and confidence when considering surrender to the Holy Spirit. My interpretations are in parenthesis.
Joshua 1:8 "Be strong and courageous, do not be afraid, do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you where-ever you go." (He’ll do the work, if we obey)
John 14:26 "But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things and will remind you of all things that I said to you." (The spirit will not only provide the words needed to be said but will help us remember what we need to know.)
Zechariah 4:6 "Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the Lord." (My job is to be present but stay out of the way)
