The United Methodist Church of the Resurrection of Leawood, Kansas, United States Daily Guide grow. pray. study. for Thursday, 15 January 2015 "On our own, we cannot help ourselves please God "

The United Methodist Church of the Resurrection of Leawood, Kansas, United States Daily Guide grow. pray. study. for Thursday, 15 January 2015 "On our own, we cannot help ourselves please God "
Daily Scripture: Romans 8:5 People who are ruled by their desires think only of themselves. Everyone who is ruled by the Holy Spirit thinks about spiritual things. 6 If our minds are ruled by our desires, we will die. But if our minds are ruled by the Spirit, we will have life and peace. 7 Our desires fight against God, because they do not and cannot obey God’s laws. 8 If we follow our desires, we cannot please God.
9 You are no longer ruled by your desires, but by God’s Spirit, who lives in you. People who don’t have the Spirit of Christ in them don’t belong to him. 10 But Christ lives in you. So you are alive because God has accepted you, even though your bodies must die because of your sins. 11 Yet God raised Jesus to life! God’s Spirit now lives in you, and he will raise you to life by his Spirit.
Reflection Questions:
The apostle Paul used a Greek word for “flesh” in these verses. The Common English Bible chose the word “selfishness” to convey what he meant by that. The CEB Study Bible noted that Paul was talking about “the core of the human who opposes God’s Spirit (as in Rom. 7:5, 14).” Left to our natural impulses, he said, our hearts are hostile to God. We need God’s Spirit to do in us what we can’t do for ourselves.• Scholar N. T. Wright offered a colorful image to help us grasp Paul’s thinking: “Human
beings in their natural state, faced with God’s law, are about as much use as a gas lamp plugged into the electric supply.” Paul earlier lamented, “I don’t do the good that I want to do, but I do the evil that I don’t want to do” (Romans 7:19). Have you ever found yourself wondering, “Why did I do that?” What is there in you that pushes back against what God wants from you?
• This reading once again speaks to the mysterious spiritual “chemistry” between God’s part and our part in spiritual growth. The Spirit needs to control our mind—and that happens, in part, because of what we choose to focus our mind on. What is your mind set on? What helps you keep your mind set on what the Spirit desires?
Prayer: Come, Holy Spirit, I need you. Come, sweet Spirit, I pray; come in your strength and your power, come in your own gentle way. Amen.

Insight from Mike Wilhoit

Mike Wilhoit serves at The Church of the Resurrection as Local Missions Director.

On our own, we can do nothing.

I remember holding my newborn daughter in the hospital.  She weighed 1 pound, 12 ounces.  Per the nurses’ instructions, I would unbutton my shirt and Mia would curl up on my chest, skin to skin.  They called it Kangaroo Care.  She was connected to wires that measured pulse and breathing rates and tubes that provided food and air. Mia’s life completely depended upon her neonatal intensive care nurses 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. We all begin life completely dependent. As we grow, it can be easy to assume full credit for our accomplishments. Yet, when it gets down to it, nothing we ever accomplish is possible without the previous or current teaching or support from others.

And, so it is with our spiritual lives. We are the Father’s children, made to depend upon the Spirit. It is somewhat ironic that those who are most comfortable with their dependence upon the Lord are often the most mature in the faith. Consider taking a dependent posture when praying. Curl up in a comfortable place and picture yourself reclining on the Father’s chest while saying, “Father, thank you for your many blessings. Please help me now.” Listen. Get up and work towards wise solutions. Repeat process frequently.

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