TODAY’S SCRIPTURE Ephesians 5:15-21
D.L. Moody once stood before a large audience holding an empty glass. He asked, “How can I get the air out of this glass?” One man suggested that he suck the air out with a pump. Moody said that would not work because the suction would create a vacuum and shatter the glass. One after another, members of the audience came up with ridiculous ways to get the air out of the glass. Finally, Moody smiled, picked up a pitcher, and poured water into the glass. “There,” he said, “all of the air has been removed.”
We need to make every effort to remove sin from our lives. Sin contaminates the soul, separates us from God, and causes us to view our fellow man with contempt. But simply removing sin from our lives is not enough. We must then allow the Holy Spirit to guide our hearts and minds. In the selected passage today, Paul states that it is foolish to ignore the will of God. Instead of filling our bodies with alcohol (an example of earthly pleasures), we should be filled with the Holy Spirit (vs. 18).
He goes on to give examples of how we can fill our lives with the Holy Spirit. We should: 1. Sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, 2. Give thanks, and 3. Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. Paul also addresses the idea of replacing worldly pleasures with godly righteousness in Romans 12:1: “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what the will of God is, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”
A Sunday school teacher once said, “Teenagers are not the only ones who have to decide between right and wrong. Adults make those decisions every day of their lives.” When we are Spirit-filled, those decisions become much easier to make.
Today, I will…identify sins in my life and pray passionately for the courage to remove those sins and replace them with God’s abiding will.