I'm writing this letter to myself, but posting it because maybe I'm not the only one who needs to hear it. Maybe?
First, some analogy.
I'm sitting at a desk getting ready to take a test. Someone's given me a pencil, but I've put it in my backpack and forgotten about it. Instead of getting the pencil out and using it, I think, "How am I ever supposed to finish this test?" The task seems impossible.
Now I'm sitting outside looking at my overgrown lawn. Someone's given me a lawnmower, and yet I don't seem to care. All I can think is man, I wish someone would come and mow this lawn before it gets any longer.
Finally, I'm standing in front of a door. A closed door, and one that I can't seem to open. I need to get inside, and yet I can't think how to do it. Sure, I know I have two arms, but surely those arms couldn't have been devised for this purpose. Surely they can't mean me to use these arms to open that door.
Now that we're all sufficiently confused, let me explain.
"But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you."
John 14:26
"But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth."
Acts 1:8
"There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit distributes them." 1 Corinthians 12:4 "All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them."
Acts 2:4
"The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God."
Luke 1:35
"In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans."
Romans 8:26
Are you getting it now? Are you seeing the pencil now? The lawnmower? Do you get that you can use those arms to open that doors?
Too often I sit in the deep hole that is my own circumstance and wonder how I'm ever going to get out. I think to myself, where's the rope that I need? What's the magic word? God, where's the help?
Well.
The Help is here,
and it's always been there,
and will always be there.
Even when I'm unable to acknowledge that.
There is a right tool for the job--in fact, there's one tool for every job, and we as Christians have unlimited access to that tool. To that Helper. To the Great Advocate. Don't complain to the teacher that you don't have a pencil when there's one sitting in your backpack. Don't ignore the lawnmower in your own garage just because your neighbor's seems bigger and shiner. Don't refuse to use your arms in ways they were intended.
"And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules."
Ezekiel 36:26-27
In our holster of faith, we are carrying the right tool for the job--the only thing we have to do now is use it.
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