Daily Devotionals

Ghost: Week 1 - Saturday

I pray that God, the source of hope, will fill you completely with joy and peace because you trust in him. Then you will overflow with confident hope through the power of the Holy Spirit. 

Romans 15:13

By every stretch of the imagination, the disciples had everything against them. They were unskilled, uneducated, and ordinary. Often instead of stepping out in faith, they were timid and locked up in fear. The powerful Jewish and Roman authorities didn't want the message of Jesus Christ to spread and stopped at nothing to try to prevent this movement. But something happened after the disciples received the Holy Spirit. God gave them the power to overcome. The obstacles that once stood in their way were now opportunities for them to advance the name of Jesus. When they were put on trial, they saw it as a chance to make Jesus Christ known. The Holy Spirit was a game changer for those in the early church.

Those original disciples took the message of Jesus Christ out, and as a result, the world was changed. After Paul became a follower of Christ, he wanted to remind those in the church of the importance of the Holy Spirit. He tells them that when they trust in God, He will allow their life to overflow with hope, joy, and peace. This happens as a result of being filled with the power of the Holy Spirit. He knew that on their own they wouldn't amount to anything more than ordinary lives, but if they tapped into the power of the Holy Spirit, they could overcome anything this world threw at them. 

This power is still available to us today through the Holy Spirit. He gives us the power to overcome addictions, bitterness, and fear so we can have hope for tomorrow and strength for today. The question is, have you tapped into the power of God or are you trying to do life on your own strength? When we surrender to God and rely on His strength, He gives us the power to overcome.

Moving Toward Action

Last weekend we shared that there are two common mistakes that we see when it comes to overcoming. People at times think they have to try harder, have to do more, or be better in order to overcome their difficulties. The other extreme is that people say, "I prayed about it, committed it to God, and now it is up to Him to work everything out." These people put no effort into overcoming their issues. To overcome it takes both you doing your part and then allowing the Holy Spirit to do what is beyond our own abilities. This takes us surrendering to Him. Take some time to think through and to journal about what you need God's strength to overcome.

Going Deeper

Read Romans 15:13-22 (NLT)

I pray that God, the source of hope, will fill you completely with joy and peace because you trust in him. Then you will overflow with confident hope through the power of the Holy Spirit.

I am fully convinced, my dear brothers and sisters, that you are full of goodness. You know these things so well you can teach each other all about them. Even so, I have been bold enough to write about some of these points, knowing that all you need is this reminder. For by God’s grace, I am a special messenger from Christ Jesus to you Gentiles. I bring you the Good News so that I might present you as an acceptable offering to God, made holy by the Holy Spirit. So I have reason to be enthusiastic about all Christ Jesus has done through me in my service to God. Yet I dare not boast about anything except what Christ has done through me, bringing the Gentiles to God by my message and by the way I worked among them. They were convinced by the power of miraculous signs and wonders and by the power of God’s Spirit. In this way, I have fully presented the Good News of Christ from Jerusalem all the way to Illyricum.

My ambition has always been to preach the Good News where the name of Christ has never been heard, rather than where a church has already been started by someone else. I have been following the plan spoken of in the Scriptures, where it says,

“Those who have never been told about him will see,
    and those who have never heard of him will understand.”

In fact, my visit to you has been delayed so long because I have been preaching in these places.