Scriptural Basis:
“If the Spirit of Him who raised Christ from the dead is living in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit, who lives in you.
Romans 8:11
Application:
Some of you are sweltering under the summer sun and heat. It has been a scorcher for many. The heat, longed for when the temperatures are bitterly cold, can at other times become oppressive; and just as blooms of flowers wilt and bend over under her burning rays, our bodies yearn for refreshment. I have watched such shriveling blooms straighten and open up before my eyes, standing tall to the sun as I applied water to their roots. No less than the fact that our mortal bodies wilt under very high temperatures, especially when mixed with sauna like humidity, our spirit flags under the heat of sin and estrangement from the only relief available to the human soul.
The picture of Romans 3:10-18 is a picture of parched earth in the human soul, not unknown to any of us. It is the picture of death and dying, like a scorched plant to which water never comes. Even the believer, who has experienced the regenerating, life-producing energy of the Holy Spirit through faith in Christ, knows something of the scorching droughts that afflict the believer in the course of his pilgrimage. In a totally different analogy such droughts have also been called “the dark night of the soul. The history of the church rings out with the personal testimonies of saints who have borne the burden of a Valley (or valleys) of Baca (Psalm 84) in their life, or dark, agonizing nights of the soul(Psalm 6). In fact, I dare say, that I cannot think of one who has not.
Any reader and lover of God’s Word cannot escape the fact that the heirs of God, and co-heirs with Christ will share in his sufferings in order to share in His glory! (Romans 8:17) Romans chapter 8 is like a cool drink of water in a scorching desert. It is even more than that; it is a life giving stream with no end to its source. No less than 18 times the Spirit of God is spoken of in Romans 8, and seldom before in the book of Romans. That is why the chapter is often titled “Life Through the Spirit. The Spirit is the key when you do not know what to pray, when you do not even want to pray, when it is the last thing you want to do; yet still you are miserable and life is seemingly ebbing out of you as the sun continues to unmercifully beat down on your parched soul. This is the context of the soul’s “inward groaning. (Romans 8:23)
If the days of too hot sun and heat can become a physical reminder of the spiritual desert of your soul, then as you pursue a cool drink of water, or a plunge in the pool, or the inside air-conditioning, you should be reminded that these physical “inconveniences and “refreshments are comparatively trivial; but the life-giving and reviving Spirit is paramount in your life now! “For if you live according to the sinful nature, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live.”
Encouragement:
“Spirit of the living God, fall fresh on me. Spirit of the living God, fall fresh on me. Break me! Melt me! Mold me! Fill me! Spirit of the living God, fall fresh on me. (Daniel Iverson, 1926)[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]
Stay Updated
Sign up for our monthly newsletter and weekly devotional
