Let’s Keep Going!
3 Gratitudes, 2 Graces, and 1 Pause. A few weeks ago, I wrote a blog to suggest trying out this routine each day through the end of the year. How is this going for you? If you haven’t tried this yet, would you be willing to give it a go? This is just a brief commercial to encourage you to keep doing the 3-2-1 challenge, even if you miss a few days here or there.
I also want to encourage you that Holy Spirit, Who Jesus also calls our Helper, is continuously available to help us with an invite as simple as, “Help!” This has been interesting for me to think about because I’m not so keen to ask for help since I’m a highly independent person and maybe much of my life’s mantra has been, “Do it myself!” We can ask Holy Spirit to help us with this 3-2-1 challenge, along with heaps more. I’m growing more comfortable with asking for Holy Spirit to help me in many different ways, some of which include:
o Help to get my grocery shopping done quickly
o Help with making dinner when the oven doesn’t work
o Help to communicate with grace and clarity
o Help to figure out situations that are murky or perplexing
I would also suggest that we let Holy Spirit help us with some of the mental narratives that can be so prevalent in our daily living. Have you ever been discouraged or disappointed in yourself, having made a poor decision, quipped out a snippy comment, made a degrading remark, felt inadequate for a situation or been unraveled from a difficult exchange? In these experiences, it’s easy to get down on ourselves and wither from accusations. I’d like to suggest that the accusation and condemnation territory is Satan’s playground since the Bible tells us that he’s the accuser of the brethren in Revelation 12:10. On the other side, Holy Spirit is our Advocate and works to continually affirm, encourage, strengthen and transform us with gracious and hopeful conviction. Just because you maybe fell down for a few days with the 3-2-1 challenge, don’t entertain the enemy’s accusations to sabotage and hijack what Holy Spirit would want to work in your soul and heart.
A final thing for you to consider that is maybe the most important is the whole truth-and-deception challenge. This is a really big deal because of the polar opposite efforts of Satan and Holy Spirit related to deception and truth. In John 8:44, Jesus tells us that Satan’s native language is deception. In contrast, we know that Holy Spirit is the “Spirit of truth” from John 14:17. I’m bringing this to your attention not merely because there’s lots of deception in the world around us but also because it’s possible that we tolerate and even dialogue with deception in our souls. If we are going to let Holy Spirit be our Spirit of truth, then we must firmly and consistently disagree with deception, most of all in our own souls. It is very much Satan’s tactics to get us focused on deceptions in the world around us, such that we ignore and even accommodate deceptions within us. In our 3-2-1 challenge, perhaps the daily pause can be some of the best times and places for us to consider if and where we have tolerated deception.