Daily Devotions
“When He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all truth.” John 16:13
In a Sunday prayer the worshipers ask God that “by your holy inspiration we may think the things that are right and by Your merciful guidance accomplish them.”
We have always known that in everyday life right doing follows right thinking. If you think you must go ten miles west and five miles north to reach your destination, then that is what you are going to do. If a golfer has wrong ideas about the game, he will make wrong shots.
Terrible things have been done in the name of religion because people had the wrong thoughts. “A time is coming,” said Jesus to His disciples, “when anyone who kills you will think he is offering a service to God” (John 16:2). An example of this is Saint Paul, who as Saul the Pharisee persecuted Christians because he thought this was God’s will.
How necessary that we, led by the Holy Spirit, devote ourselves to right learning, right knowing, and right thinking so that there can be Spirit-led believing, followed by right doing! Knowledge and faith go together like horse and carriage. We need to know that in love for all mankind God gave His Son, Jesus Christ, as an offering for sin and then to believe that God so loved me.
Right knowing and believing then result in right doing. True faith always bears fruit: good works. God’s people acknowledge that the weakness of sin is still in them, that often there is a slip between the cup and the lip, that wanting to do the right thing doesn’t always lead to doing it. So they ask for God’s help, namely, that by His guidance they may accomplish their God-pleasing thoughts, plans, and resolutions. God answers that prayer. He strengthens His people through Word and sacrament to do His will. The kingdom of God grows when right thoughts are translated into right deeds.
PRAYER: O Holy Spirit, implant Your truth in my heart and mind and help me to carry it out. Amen.
(Devotions from “With Jesus Every Day” copyright 1997, CPH. All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be printed, reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission of Concordia Publishing House. Permission is granted for one-time emailing of this link to a friend. For information on other devotional material, please contact CPH at 800-325-3040 or visit CPH at www.cph.org.)