by Pastor Jeremy Vaccaro
On a recent Sunday I walked up to a couple after worship; I put my arm around the husband’s shoulder and simply asked, “How are you guys?” It turned out that they weren’t well. It had been an extremely tough morning in the midst of what is turning out to be an extremely tough season. They are struggling to live into something that they feel God has led them to do, and it is hard … really hard. What I expected to be a quick Sunday morning greeting, turned into an ordained conversation and prayer time. Why was it ordained? Well, it turns out they were just talking about wanting to connect with a pastor before I walked up and interrupted their conversation. God organized the whole thing, and we were all encouraged. Yet, their struggle continues.
Have you ever experienced something like that? Maybe you’ve been the answer to someone’s prayer. Someone was asking God for help with a problem, and then you showed up with an encouragement or a solution or a listening ear. Have you experienced that? Maybe you’ve been the one praying, and God has provided someone for you. That person may not have realized it, but their connection with you was just what you needed. I believe that God is organizing and ordaining stuff like that all the time. I just heard another story like this from a mom whose adult daughter is far from God. While the daughter was sitting in a coffee shop, recently, a Christian person came up to her noticing that the daughter seemed troubled. That opening inquiry turned into a long conversation and a quick prayer that has the daughter stirring in a new way about God. Isn’t that good? It happened because God cares about all kinds of people, and because a Christian was listening to the prompting of the Holy Spirit.
Can you think of something that the Holy Spirit has prompted you to do lately? This Lenten season, as we prepare for the great celebration of Easter, is a wonderful time to carve out time to space in your life to listen for the Holy Spirit’s guidance and prompting. Every Sunday we’ve been raising self-reflection questions that come right out of the biblical text. Have you been taking time to think about them? My prayer is that these kinds of questions will help you to be more aware of the Holy Spirit’s presence in your life. The more aware you are of the Holy Spirit’s presence in your life, the more ready you are to hear and respond to the Spirit’s promptings.
Here’s the deal, there are people all around you, every day, who are going through a hard season. There are other people around you who have lots of great things in their lives, but don’t have peace. Still, there are other people around you who wonder if God really exists. Are you open today to listening to the Holy Spirit and following the Spirit’s lead? God can use you to bring encouragement, peace, and hope because of the incredible gift of the Holy Spirit for those who are in Christ. God can use you to point others to Christ Jesus, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. God can use you.
Following the Lord’s lead isn’t easy, and it isn’t always glamorous. The couple I mentioned in the first paragraph is learning that full well. Following God’s lead can reveal some of the junk in our lives; it can shed light on the rough edges of our attitudes and behaviors; it can pull the bandage off an old festering wound that you thought was long gone. It’s called discipleship. Following the Lord’s lead is how we grow in our own Christian maturity, and it’s how God uses the Church to advance His Kingdom.
Are you open to the Lord’s leading today? He can use you.
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