Empowered

January 8

Our transformation and heart change can only come from the Holy Spirit within.

It’s hard to imagine that God could do even more for us than what we’ve seen so far in Emmanuel. And yet, things get even sweeter. Our amazing, enormous God not only is with us, and became one of us, but now we learn that this same God sent His Spirit to indwell us. God can be in us—leading us, sustaining us, and giving us the ability to live a life that is powerfully devoted to Him!

Scripture for today, John 14:15-23, which invites us to look at heart change through the Holy Spirit.

Take time to reflect together on the passage. Read the passage a second time if needed. If you’d like some help in drawing out reflections, share answers to these questions: How do you show love (to your family, friends, those you don’t like)? How does your love differ from your family and friends to those you don’t like?

Jesus tells us that we are not alone, but that the Holy Spirit lives within us; how does knowing that we do not have to rely on ourselves for heart change, affect how you can love others?

With the start of a new year, what are things you can do this year to show that God dwells in you? Who are people in your life that need to hear the Gospel?

After giving time to reflection, offer up a simple prayer to God. If you aren’t sure what to pray, consider something like this: “Thank you God for sending the Holy Spirit to transform my heart. Thank you God for the strength, peace, comfort, and leading that the Holy Spirit provides in my life. Amen.”

Here are some other ways you can put your faith into practice with this week’s focus - “Empowered.”

For Adults

It is not easy to love everyone. As you go through your week look for the things that you struggle with about others, and ask God to change your heart. In that moment pray that the Holy Spirit would start to transform your heart to see those things as God does.

For Teens

It is not easy to love everyone. As you go through your week look for the things that are hard to love in others. Stop in the moments when you find things that you don’t like, or make you mad. Pray that the Holy Spirit would start to change your heart to see those people as God does.

For Kids

We know we love God when we love others. Ask your kids who out of the people they know, is God asking them to show love to?

—Brittany Timm & David White

John 15: 1-17

I Am The True Vine

The authors of the bible did not use these analogies by accident. God’s word spoken through them clearly illustrates how nature works in much the same way as man.

Last fall I received a call from my adult daughter, inquiring if she had pruned the young bushes in her front yard properly. The shrubs were nothing to look at to begin with, rather scraggly and weak looking. I inquired, “How did you do it?” “Well,” she hesitated, “I used a clipper and cut all the branches down about the same length.” “How much did you leave above the ground?” was my reply. “Oh, I don’t know, maybe an inch,” was her quiet come back. I could tell by her voice she thought she may have gone a bit too far for these young perennials to make it through a rough Midwest winter, but I encouraged her. I shared that I don’t generally cut mine back quite that far, yet a good pruning can often be just what it takes for them to come back better than ever. I believe my optimism left her with a bit of hope for new sprouts in the spring.

She recently sent a picture of her severely pruned shrubs on my phone, and to her delight and mine, though they are much smaller than last year, they are thriving. Perhaps the severe blow they survived helped them somehow realize their vulnerability, and push back through the dirt despite the odds, to show my daughter their true beauty and worth.

“I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful.”  John 15: 1-2 “Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain on the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.” John 15:4 Though our God is much more deliberate about which of our branches is cut off, which ones are pruned, and to what depth than my daughter was, the truth is;

All created by God, we are an extension of him. We are empowered by God’s grace and it is by remaining in him and offering God’s Grace to others that we truly live. This passage ends with  “Love Each Other.”

Read/Listen to John 15:1-17