Don’t Give Up – Empty Out Instead!
Posted:
Based on “Under HIS Influence - The Overflowing Lifestyle”
by Pastor Mark Balmer;
9/5-6/09, Message #MB388;
Daily Devotional #4 -
“Don’t Give Up – Empty Out Instead!”
Preparing the Soil (Introduction): Have you ever been at a point in life where you just felt like giving up?
You just couldn’t give anymore—you were burned out.
Everything you were doing seemed to fall apart. You were filled with the Spirit, but you’d been slowly leaking and, not being refilled, you were trying to do everything in your own strength. Wondering how you got there, you found that you weren’t living under the influence of the Holy Spirit.
The enemy was slowly gaining strongholds in your life; just little doors you left open because you relied on yourself, not the power of the Holy Spirit to guide you. Have you been here?
Are you burned out today?
Planting and Watering the Seed (Growth):
The enemy is injecting your mind with the idea that life is just too hard, that you just can’t do it. He wants you to give up. But God has not made it hard for us. No, we make it hard for ourselves.
The LORD your God will delight in you if you obey his voice and keep the commands and decrees written in this Book of Instruction, and if you turn to the LORD your GOD with all your heart and soul. This command I am giving you today is not too difficult for you to understand, and it is not beyond your reach (Deuteronomy 30:10-11, NLT).
We make it hard because we are full of ourselves.
We have an instruction book on how to do life right (the Bible), but life seems difficult because we are worried about the “what if’s” and the unknowns.
If we don’t empty ourselves of self and let the Holy Spirit fill us, we will continue to struggle for the right answers and direction for our life. We will continue to feel burned out because we are not under the influence of the real power—the Holy Spirit.
Harvesting the Crop (Action/Response): Now listen!
Today I am giving you a choice between life and death, between prosperity and disaster. For I command you this day to love the LORD your God and to keep his commands, decrees and regulations by walking in his ways. If you do this, you will live and multiply, and the Lord your God will bless you and the land you are about to enter and occupy (Deuteronomy 30:15-16, NLT).
If we empty ourselves and let the Holy Spirit fill us, we can walk confidently where God leads us. God loves us and only wants the best for us.
We can be sure that if God is leading us, He will take care of us.
If life were easy, God would not have left us His instruction book and He would not have given us the Holy Spirit to guide us. You are right, you can’t do this; life is too hard alone.
You need to be filled with Holy Spirit on a daily basis.
This power is free to you at no charge, once you become a follower of Christ. God has made it available by His grace. So when you think it is too hard, you are right! Empty yourself of your fear, pride, and whatever other area of sin that Satan has a stronghold over and then ask the Holy Spirit to fill you.
You will be renewed and refreshed.
Cultivating (Additional Reading): Deuteronomy 30; John 14:16
jej
