Radio Dial

The other day I was in the throes of getting the kids out the door for school, reminding my son to brush his teeth, asking my daughter if she had her report in her backpack, tripping over the dogs, looking everywhere for my shoes, then the keys to the car…AGAIN, when my dearest husband made the mistake of asking me to be sure I stopped at the dry cleaners to drop off his clothes from our recent trip. My reaction to him was definitely not my finest moment, I’m sorry to say.  I am not too proud to say that my voice was a few decibels louder than it normally is.

As I dropped off my cherubs at school, I realized I needed to step away and regroup–what is it we say to our kids? “You need an attitude adjustment!” I needed an attitude adjustment, that’s for sure.  What had transpired at home that morning reminded me of when I was in high school and used to listen to the radio at night.

We lived in Eastern Tennessee and had no television at that time. I enjoyed listening to AM radio at night and would dial in the station that played radio theater shows. The only problem was that as it got later, stations right next to the radio theater stations would punch up their frequencies and would begin to bleed over onto the station I was trying to listen to. The signals would get crossed and I would have to constantly adjust the dial to find just the spot where the signal would come in loud and clear again. This happened so many times during the course of a one-hour broadcast!

I realized that was what had happening to me that morning—-I needed to adjust the dial to receive the station I wanted to hear, the frequency of the Holy Spirit. When we have moments like that and we take the time to step away, adjust the dial and get that clear signal again, God’s Spirit can continue to be heard in our hearts and minds. We get that attitude adjustment that we need, because “we have the mind of Christ” (1 Corinthians 2:16 ESV).

As I drove back up to the house after dropping off the dry cleaning, the joy of the Lord coursed through my mind, heart and body. I greeted my surprised husband with a great big hug and a big, bright smile, being once again tuned in fully to Jesus Christ. 

 

As you go through your day today, be sensitive to when you feel that the station needs to be dialed in a little bit better. What do you notice during those times? How do YOU “adjust” the dial?

Watch the reactions of those around you as you consciously engage the Helper, the Holy Spirit (John 16:7), to pull out of moments where you are beaten down by circumstances or situations that threaten your sense of peace and joy. How is God glorified in those moments? 

 

The Message says it this way in Philippians 3:15–let’s keep focused on that goal, those of us who want everything God has for us. If any of you have something else in mind, something less than total commitment, God will clear your blurred vision – you’ll see it yet!

Dear Lord, help us to recognize those moments when we have lost your signal and are not living our lives on your frequency.  We pray that the Helper, the Holy Spirit, will lead us into Your will in all things.  Keep our minds focused on you, lifted up above the things on this earth that try to drown out Your voice.  Father, we pray that you will give us ears to hear and willing hearts to obey.  In Jesus’ blessed name we ask this, Am

 

 

 

Life to Your Mortal Body

Romans 8:11 makes a bold assertion: “If the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.” (ESV)

When we read Paul’s words in Romans, sometimes we look so far forward for this “giving of life” that we miss what God wants to do for us NOW. God wants to give us this power now! We are being changed into Christ’s glorious image now…while dwelling in these “fragile clay jars” (Romans 4:7 TLB)

What an amazing concept–that God’s Spirit, the very same POWER that raised our Lord from the dead, gives life to my body. There was a prophet by the name of Elisha to whom God’s Spirit gave so much life that even his BONES still had the power to raise to life a hastily-thrown-in corpse who was tossed into his grave. (You can read about this in 2 Kings 13) Wow!

Do we long to be so filled with the life-giving power of the Spirit that our very bones are saturated with life, even when we are physically dead and buried? Or are we content to just go through the motions of “life” and barely get through each day?? Jesus did indeed come to give us abundant life, a Spirit-filled and powerful life…a life that will resurrect those who are spiritually dead around us.

Amen! Come, Lord Jesus! Dwell within us now with all your fullness, power, truth and love in such a way that we have LIFE in our mortal bodies now…and may we overflow with Your life and love so that lives are touched in a mighty way.