Thread by @glprater

#GeraldsDevotional
God in Us – He Works Everything for Good
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Yesterday in part 2 of this devotional series I mentioned how the disciples wanted to avoid pain and suffering at all cost. They saw the declaration by Jesus that He would be betrayed and killed as the worst thing that could ever happen. Based on their own understanding, they

struggled and prayed that it should NOT happen to Him (see what Peter said in Matthew 16:22).

Now if we are honest with ourselves, we will recognize that we all have this tendency to instinctively (based on our own feelings and understanding) ask God to take away all troubles

and suffering that we encounter. Just as Peter did in Matthew 16:22, we also do it out of a motivation to care for and to protect ourselves and others. And when we do that, we focus only on the negative things that we perceive and we don’t tend to ask God for the possible

positive outcome or good that He may be working in this circumstance (see the famous Romans 8:28, the namesake of this message).

In our scripture reading yesterday, we read the first four verses of John chapter 16 where Jesus warned His disciples about the troubles that they

would suffer in this world BECAUSE they believed and followed Him. This world system really hates Him because it is broken and controlled by sin (Satan, the enemy of life).

So as we continue today with verse 5, Jesus tells them that He is now going to allow the world to do what

it does (which is death) to Him so that He can go back to His Father. But His disciples really don’t understand the significance of what He is saying and they are only focusing on the suffering and the relationship that they think they are about to lose. So He tells them that it

is actually to their (and our) benefit that He is going away.

Because of what His was doing, they would soon be able to be closer to God the Father than anyone has been since Genesis 2. This was not the end, but only the beginning. We were going to receive the Spirit of the Lord

who would do so very much good for us and through us today. Jesus said that the benefits for us would be so enormous that we could not fully comprehend them now. But He names a few of them as reassurance for us once again that this will be for good. He says that God will be

actively using His Helper inside of us to carry out His goodness, righteousness and judgment in a dark and evil world. The Spirit of truth will help us to see what God sees. He will help us to see the truth that has been so terribly lost in this world of darkness.

So now let’s carefully read and contemplate what Jesus says (all in red letters) in John 16 beginning at verse 5.

The Work of the Holy Spirit
5 “But now I go away to Him who sent Me, and none of you asks Me, ‘Where are You going?’ 6 But because I have said these things to you,

sorrow has filled your heart. 7 Nevertheless I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send Him to you. 8 And when He has come, He will convict the world of sin, and of

righteousness, and of judgment: 9 of sin, because they do not believe in Me; 10 of righteousness, because I go to My Father and you see Me no more; 11 of judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged. 12 “I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them

now. 13 However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come. 14 He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it

to you. 15 All things that the Father has are Mine. Therefore I said that He will take of Mine and declare it to you. - John 16:5-15
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