Prayer 556 - Week 2, Tuesday

March 1st, 2021

Tuesday - The Fire Within You

Sometimes we're walking through fires - circumstances that threaten to overwhelm us. But have you ever stopped to consider that, even in all of these things, you also have a fire within you? Today we're reading in the book of Acts.

Resist the urge to skim over it if this is a passage you're familiar with! If you've got a journal handy, try writing it out to help yourself really consider what this was like!

Read.

Acts 2: 1-4, 11-12, 14
When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting.
Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each one of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages as the Spirit gave them ability...
In their own language, people from all nations hear them speaking about God's deeds of power. All were amazed and perplexed.
But Peter, standing with the eleven, raised his voice and addressed them, "Men of Judea and all who live in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and listen to what I say."

Reflect/Journal

When the Holy Spirit descended on the apostles, they were both given ability where they had none and were made fearless to preach to the crowds about Jesus. That same Holy Spirit is within you... let that reality sink in for a moment.

Where do you desire to live without fear?

Where do you need the Holy Spirit to equip you in new ways?

The Holy Spirit is within you, can you name three or four ways that you could intentionally invite the Holy Spirit to be more active in your life.

What difference might it make?

Pray.

O God,
gather me now
to be with you
as you are with me.

Soothe my tiredness;
quiet by fretfulness;
curb my aimlessness;
receive my compulsiveness;
let me be easy for a moment.

O Lord, release me from the fears
and guilts which grip me so tightly;
from the expectations and opinions
which I so tightly grip,
that I may be open to receiving,
to learn something refreshingly different.

O God, gather me to be with you as you are with me.

-Ted Loder, Guerillas of Grace

6 Comments

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Nick Tebordo - March 2nd, 2021 at 4:17am

“It’s Your breath in my lungs!” The eternal part of me is the breath You breathed into me as You formed me in my mother’s womb. As the wind blew and the fire fell on Pentecost, we are enabled to live in the power of the Spirit. A fire comes into our souls. Instead of living in the flesh which is weak, we are enabled to live as Spirit filled, Spirit powered beings. This takes daily dying to self. As we have asked for the fire to burn up the chaff in our lives-as we desire to “turn aside” to see and experience the fire, the Fire will fill us and empower us to move beyond fear. Fear is a part of the human condition , but moving through and beyond fear is surely a mark of the Spirit at work in our lives. We certainly see this in Peter. He who had shaken in fear on the night of Jesus’ arrest now boldly proclaims the Kingdom. Let us boldly proclaim the Kingdom. As the wind blows outside, let the Fire fall within. Prepare to take up our cross remembering that there were 4 in the fiery furnace. Jesus is with us!!!

Nikki Wood - March 2nd, 2021 at 4:43am

This one hit me in the heart. I think I struggle the most to Let go and Let God, when it comes to my parenting. I’m so afraid to not be enough that I over compensate and hold on way to tight. This O Lord, release me from the fears

and guilts which grip me so tightly;

Is what I need to pray every day. And invite God in, to move within me, that I may parent in faith more.

susan Blais - March 2nd, 2021 at 5:35am

As my phone was ringing this morning at 5 AM, it was shortly followed by my dialysis machine ringing that it was finished. We always take my temperature and blood pressure at that point in time. This morning my temperature red 93.6°. So you can imagine my difficulty in feeling the fire within me! It was indeed something I had to work out! So that was the first thing I needed to work on. I had no difficulty feeling the “wind“ of the Holy Spirit, as I listened to the wind howl all night long.Ok I have been calling on the Holy Spirit recently to help me seek what I should do to fill my time and space to serve the Lord. I can imagine how frightened the disciples were when the flames of fire descended upon them. Jesus had spoken to them about the Holy Spirit, but until this point in time they really didn’t know how it was going to affect their lives. Lord, I pray that you would affect my life as the disciples were affected.

Melody Nadeau - March 2nd, 2021 at 6:58am

Nikki's comment says almost what I was going to say-- just that we're at different stages of life.

I need the Holy Spirit to give me fire in my relationships, especially with my children. I have such anxiety about being rejected or left behind that I usually just avoid getting really close to people, and this doesn't work with adult children. With them, it's not only a problem if fears and guilts, but also regrets-- possibly over mistakes that they don't even remember.

I'm working on it!

Linda Comstock - March 2nd, 2021 at 7:31am

My fear is that I won't be as good as God asks me to be. That when my time comes to join Him in the heavenly realm I will miss the mark. Also of being a good wife. I have high expectations of marriage and when those expectations aren't met I can be closed off. I continue working on lowering those expectations. It's a challenge.

I need the Holy Spirit to equip me with unquenchable joy. This has been a difficult winter without much sun, no volumteer work, few activities and lack of focus.. I need the Holy Spirit to guide and direct me to be a better disciple.

Jessica Kestens - March 2nd, 2021 at 3:52pm

Fear has had a strong grip on me recently. When I got sick some of my routines fell to the wayside- particularly one that Pastor Nick shared with me when he & Bert came to bless our apartment last year. There were some negative, seemingly supernatural, disturbances going on. Nick told me to focus on the Holy Spirit within me and picture it growing and spilling into my room, then into the apartment. Then picture the Spirit filling all my neighbors apartments (particularly the one upstairs who had domestic abuse issues and may have inadvertently invited/opened evil into the building). This helped “banish” whatever it was but, more importantly, I learned a way of focusing on the Spirit within me and using its owner to help and/or guide me. Yesterday when I had the minor surgery on my toe, while the doc was getting ready, I used this technique to calm my fear as the Holy Spirit moved within me, surrounded me, and filled the room. It still hurt like crazy but I wasn’t in tears, I wasn’t scared. It made a difference in that moment that I could discern.