REPOST Today’s AMI QT Devotional, first posted on April 5, 2015, is provided by Pastor Shan Gian who is the Fenway Site pastor at Symphony Church in Boston. Shan is a graduate of University of Pennsylvania (BA) and Gordon Conwell Seminary (M.Div.).
Spiritual Food for Thought for the Weekend
“Easter Sunday”
Romans 8:11
If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.
A long time ago, when I was still pretty young in my faith (but acting like I was mature), I remember a friend of mine closing a prayer meeting with a prayer that went something like this: “God, we thank you that the same Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead is within us.” After he said that, my immediate reaction was, “Wait, is that true?” It was inconceivable to me that this incredible statement could be factual. So after the prayer meeting, I went home and pulled up Bible Gateway and did a search for those words; and to my amazement, it was true! The Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead dwells within me and with all believers. When we know this truth, it changes everything, doesn’t it?
Today, we celebrate Easter Sunday—Jesus rose from the dead on this day a few thousand years ago. It was and still is the greatest day in all of history because everything changed as a result of the Christ’s resurrection. Not too long after this glorious day, simple, uneducated men would start sharing this Good News to strangers and even foreigners, where thousands of people started to put their faith in this Jesus. They would help the lame to walk, the sick to be healed, and bring dead back to life, all the while rejoicing as they took on beatings and persecutions. These simple, uneducated men would flip the whole world upside down. All of this could only be possible because that same Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead dwelled in them.
We can look at our own lives and just feel so ordinary; it’s hard to think we could be like those apostles and have much to offer to this world. Especially when we focus on the darkness and problems of this world, we feel powerless. Maybe instead of the Spirit, we see the sin that still rages within our hearts. It’s hard to believe that we would ever be free of it. But when we realize this truth that this same Spirit who raised Jesus Christ from the dead dwells within us, and when we remember this Easter Sunday, it should change everything. Sin has lost its power over us. Death has been defeated. We have this power within us that comes from the Holy Spirit.
As we celebrate this Easter Sunday, let us rejoice that this same Spirit that raised Christ from the dead lives in us. Let’s believe in that power within us!
Prayer: Thank you, Lord Jesus, for the resurrection and the hope that it imbues. May the power of resurrection propel me to live a life worthy of your precious name. Amen.
Bible Reading for Today: Jeremiah 24