Verse of the Day

3 Make every effort to keep yourselves united in the Spirit, binding yourselves together with peace. 4 For there is one body and one Spirit, just as you have been called to one glorious hope for the future. 5 There is one Lord, one faith, one baptism, 6 and one God and Father, who is over all and in all and living through all. Ephesians 4:3-6

On occasion my verse of the day becomes verses, and today is one of those days. Lately I have been discussing the Spirit, and today is going to be a continuation of reflection on the Spirit. As many of you know, I have a spiritual mentor who is awesome-Lorene. What a rock she has been in my life. I cannot express what her wisdom has done to help me the last year and a half.

One of the things that she and I have discussed often is the Holy Spirit. Understand this-the Spirit is God living in us!! I will be the first to say that I still have a hard time really understanding this concept, but the more I grow spiritually the more my understanding grows. The Spirit in us is our way of communicating directly with God, for the Spirit knows the thoughts and ways of both man and God.

I have really been burdened and overwhelmed by emotions lately, and this week has been a daily emotional roller coaster for me. The one thing my divorce taught me is that we are all given free will, and that will comes from the soul.

We are comprised of Spirit, body and soul. The soul is our emotions and our "brain", if you will. How often do we listen to our emotions and our "logic"? Daily. However, there are times when that conflicts with the Spirit. Logic and emotions are dictated by what is going on in our lives. The "stuff" that kind of messes us up often times. Sometimes I have been so confused about what to do with my life, and which direction to take. My soul and my Spirit are usually at odds when that happens. So what are we to do during these times?

Talking to Lorene is always a blessing. She has been given the gift of wisdom, and joyfully and prayerfully shares with others. First and foremost she always recommends reading the word and laying things at the cross in prayer. One of the things that has come up often in our discussions is the role of the Spirit. When we have internal conflict, the Spirit has to be our guidance. The Spirit is the part of us that understands God's will for our lives, his plans for us. Unfortunately in the past I have made a mess of things by not really being aware of, or listening to, the Spirit. However, the one thing I am sure of is that if the Spirit is directing me in a certain direction it is from God. I may choose to ignore the promptings because it does not really fit my emotional needs at the time, or it does not seem like the logical thing to do, but I have to really think about what the word says and realize that God's ways are not my ways. It's just a matter of surrender on my part.

As I am going through the next few difficult days, I have really just had to surrender certain things to the Lord, and remember that despite how I feel, his timing and ways are not mine, and that I really need to be attuned to the Spirit.