Day 22 - Perfect Packing

The Spirit gives us the power to witness for God to the ends of the earth. He equips us with the strength we need to accomplish God’s purposes.
Recently, my parents have found themselves living in two houses, in two different cities, concurrently. Selling one house and moving to the other hasn’t happened as quickly as they planned. So, some things are in the city and some things are in the country. For example, the washer and dryer live in the city…not in the country anymore. So going back and forth is sometimes quite challenging.

Since this is not the first time this has happened to them, they (well, my mom) have gotten pretty good at packing to go from one place to the other. However, it never fails that you are one place and really needing something that’s at the other place. Been there, done that? It’s really frustrating. But it’s really encouraging when you need something, go looking for it, and realize that you have packed perfectly and have everything you need.

In Ephesians 3:14-21, Paul prays for the Ephesian Christians. It’s a pretty all-encompassing prayer, at that. He actually prays for all of the people in the past who were Christians, all the people who are Christians now, and all the people who will become Christians in the future. He prays that the Christians would know how total God’s love is. The Life Application Bible (NIV) notes say that Paul tells them that God’s love reaches every corner of our experience. The notes say that His love is wide—it covers the breadth of our own experience and it reaches out to the whole world. His love is long—it continues the length of our lives. It is high—it rises to the heights of our celebration and elation. His love is deep—it reaches to the depths of discouragement, despair, and even death. And it is available to us from the Father through the Spirit.

The very first America’s Cup yacht race in 1851 (which was originally called the Royal Yacht Squadron Cup, but was won by the schooner America, and called America’s Cup from then on) took place in a course that sailed around the Isle of Wight. The America defeated 15 yachts from the Royal Yacht Squadron. When the Queen of England asked who came in second, the reply was, “Ah, Majesty, there is no second.”

There are many fascinating stories in America’s Cup racing lore. They may differ in detail depending on who’s telling the story. But in the end, they all center on a common theme: catching the wind—a full sail of wind—and running with the wind. What a great concept to compare the work of the Holy Spirit in us.

But are we content to float along whether at half-sail or even against the wind?

Are we so busy with what’s happening on deck (the busyness of our lives) that we forget we’re in a race?