Prepare for Easter

Tuesday, March 31, 2020

About My Father’s Business:

A Lenten Devotional Guide

“So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives; and he who seeks, finds; and to him who knocks, it will be opened. Now suppose one of you fathers is asked by his son for a fish; he will not give him a snake instead of a fish, will he? Or if he is asked for an egg, he will not give him a scorpion, will he? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him?”

Luke 11:9-13 NASB

This Scripture from Luke is so often abused! We want it to say that we can have whatever we want, whenever we want it. After all, if God is our Father and if everything belongs to him, can’t we justify asking? And doesn’t it say that everyone who knocks, seeks, or asks gets what he is asking for? Sorry. That isn’t what it says.

Jesus wants to give us something amazing, but before he can, he wants us to ask. That something is really someone, his Holy Spirit. Before Christ was crucified, he told his disciples that he had to go away so that the Father could send the Holy Spirit. He knew hard times were ahead and the disciples needed every strength that could be mustered for them to survive, strength that can only come from the Holy Spirit.

After he was resurrected, he told them they’d receive power from on high. The word translated from the Greek dunamis as “power” is the word from which we get our word dynamite! Jesus said that his Father wants us to have dynamite power, the Holy Spirit, to teach us and empower us for day to day living. All we have to do is ask!

An important part of the business God had set for Jesus was to send his Spirit back to us after he returned to heaven. Our job? To ask.

Father, We sing, “Come, Holy Spirit, dark is the hour. We need your filling, your love and your mighty power…. Come Holy Spirit, revive [our hearts] today.” Amen

Come Holy Spirit by John W. Peterson

About My Father’s Business:

A Lenten Devotional Guide
prepared for First United Methodist Church
of Homosassa, Florida
Spring 2010
by Patience Nave, Christian Education Coordinator