5 Habits - Overflow #1
Welcome to Everyday Devotions. These daily Bible readings and Prayer Pathways are designed to help you go deeper with God each day in response to what you are hearing at the Everyday Church services and Life Group gatherings.
Monday 3rd February
Welcome to this fifth week of Everyday Devotions. Over the past four weeks, we have looked at four healthy habits that promote spiritual growth in us – Bible Meditation and Prayer Pathways and Sung Worship and being filled with the Holy Spirit. This week, we are going to look at a fifth and final healthy habit – allowing what God is doing in our hearts to Overflow to the world around us. We will take a few weeks’ break at the end of this fifth week of Everyday Devotions in order to look at your feedback and to decide whether or not it would be helpful for us to go on providing these daily devotional guides for you each day. So do let us know what you think – if we get enough positive feedback then we’ll be back very soon!
Bible Meditation
John 7:37-39
37 On the last and greatest day of the festival, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. 38 Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.” 39 By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified.
1) John tells us that the Holy Spirit could not be given until Jesus was glorified. How does that build on what we read together last week in Peter’s sermon on the Day of Pentecost, where he said in Acts 2:32-33 that we can only be baptised with the Holy Spirit through the life, death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus?
2) Jesus says that God’s purpose in filling Christians with the Holy Spirit is so that “rivers of living water will flow out from within them.” How much do you think we emphasise this in the Western Church? Do you think that we have fallen for our consumer culture and perhaps emphasise the ‘inflow’ of the Holy Spirit a lot more than we do the ‘outflow’?
3) A tap can only receive fresh water if it is open and allows water to flow through it. How much do you think this is a factor in our own lack of experience of the Holy Spirit today? How much of our ‘inflow’ problem do you think is really an ‘outflow’ problem? If we were willing to let the Spirit flow out of us more, do you think he would flow into us more?
4) What is the only qualification that Jesus gives in the first four words of verse 38 for people to be filled with the Holy Spirit? Do you believe that Jesus wants to fill you with his Spirit so that the Spirit can overflow to others through you?
Jesus doesn’t tell us which Old Testament Scriptures he has in mind when he says that “Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.” There are actually a number of Old Testament Scriptures that he might have in mind, so we are going to look at several of them in our Everyday Devotions across the course of this week. Here is the first one:
Exodus 17:1-6
The whole Israelite community set out from the Desert of Sin, traveling from place to place as the Lord commanded. They camped at Rephidim, but there was no water for the people to drink. 2 So they quarrelled with Moses and said, “Give us water to drink.” Moses replied, “Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you put the Lord to the test?” 3 But the people were thirsty for water there, and they grumbled against Moses. They said, “Why did you bring us up out of Egypt to make us and our children and livestock die of thirst?” 4 Then Moses cried out to the Lord, “What am I to do with these people? They are almost ready to stone me.” 5 The Lord answered Moses, “Go out in front of the people. Take with you some of the elders of Israel and take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile, and go. 6 I will stand there before you by the rock at Horeb. Strike the rock, and water will come out of it for the people to drink.” So Moses did this in the sight of the elders of Israel.
5) Take a moment to reflect on your workplace, on your school, on your friendship groups and on your neighbourhood. In what ways are they spiritually a lot like the very aptly-named “Desert of Sin”?
6) What would it mean for God to turn you into a living, breathing, walking, talking Rock in the midst of that desert, changing your environment for good? What would it mean, very practically, for you to be a Rock that gushes out the presence of the Holy Spirit in the midst of such a spiritual desert?
7) Do you feel excited about this promise that the Lord is making to you today? Jesus promises you that if you feel thirsty for this, then he is more than willing to answer your prayer. Why not stop and ask him right now?
Prayer Pathway
Spend some time praying The Trinity Prayer, using 2 Corinthians 13:14 to order your prayers for God to fill you with the Holy Spirit and to make you a Rock in the midst of the Desert of Sin – “May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.”
THE LOVE OF GOD: Thank God that he is a loving Father who longs to give good gifts to his children. Thank him that the idea of humans being filled with the Spirit of God was not your idea or the idea of one of the preachers at Everyday Church. It was God’s own idea, prophesied many centuries ago in the Old Testament and now fulfilled in Jesus. Praise him that this is true.
THE GRACE OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST: Thank Jesus that, although he is the Son of God, he humbled himself to become a man so that we might participate in the Holy Spirit with him (2 Peter 1:4). Thank him that he has now been glorified and that we are living in the era when God’s Spirit is poured out on his people. Thank him that everything which belongs to him now belongs to you, including the Spirit of God. Thank him for God’s Riches At Christ’s Expense.
THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE HOLY SPIRIT: Thank the Holy Spirit that he wants to fellowship with you by coming and turning you into a Rock in the midst of the spiritual desert all around you. Invite the Holy Spirit to come and do as he has promised.
THE LOVE OF GOD: Thank God that he is a loving Father who longs to give good gifts to his children. Thank him that the idea of humans being filled with the Spirit of God was not your idea or the idea of one of the preachers at Everyday Church. It was God’s own idea, prophesied many centuries ago in the Old Testament and now fulfilled in Jesus. Praise him that this is true.
THE GRACE OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST: Thank Jesus that, although he is the Son of God, he humbled himself to become a man so that we might participate in the Holy Spirit with him (2 Peter 1:4). Thank him that he has now been glorified and that we are living in the era when God’s Spirit is poured out on his people. Thank him that everything which belongs to him now belongs to you, including the Spirit of God. Thank him for God’s Riches At Christ’s Expense.
THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE HOLY SPIRIT: Thank the Holy Spirit that he wants to fellowship with you by coming and turning you into a Rock in the midst of the spiritual desert all around you. Invite the Holy Spirit to come and do as he has promised.
End with Worship
In order to help you to respond to God in sung worship, we have created two playlists for you on Spotify:
The Everyday Devotions playlist contains a handful of songs which are particularly relevant to our Everyday Devotions this week. This song list changes each week along with our devotions.
The Everyday Church Song List playlist contains most of the songs that we are singing right now across the venues of Everyday Church. This is a wider song list for you to play throughout the day to help you worship as you wash up, as you drive, as you shower, as you sit on the bus and as you go about your day.
If you are somewhere where you can sing loudly, why not use these two playlists to end by singing some songs of worship to the Lord? If you are on the bus or train, why not put on your headphones and sing in your heart to God instead?
This week the songs are largely prayers for God to fill us with his Holy Spirit and to overflow into the world through us.
The Everyday Devotions playlist contains a handful of songs which are particularly relevant to our Everyday Devotions this week. This song list changes each week along with our devotions.
The Everyday Church Song List playlist contains most of the songs that we are singing right now across the venues of Everyday Church. This is a wider song list for you to play throughout the day to help you worship as you wash up, as you drive, as you shower, as you sit on the bus and as you go about your day.
If you are somewhere where you can sing loudly, why not use these two playlists to end by singing some songs of worship to the Lord? If you are on the bus or train, why not put on your headphones and sing in your heart to God instead?
This week the songs are largely prayers for God to fill us with his Holy Spirit and to overflow into the world through us.
Comment: to friends on social media by using the hashtag #WeAreEveryday
Connect: We’d really like your feedback on how these Everyday Devotions are helping you and how we might help you even better. Talk to us by emailing: devotions@everyday.org.uk
Continue: your connection with us by attending our Online Church Service
Connect: We’d really like your feedback on how these Everyday Devotions are helping you and how we might help you even better. Talk to us by emailing: devotions@everyday.org.uk
Continue: your connection with us by attending our Online Church Service