Good Defined

Jesus taught us, saying: “So I say to you: Ask, and it will be given to you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; everyone who searches finds; everyone who knocks will have the door opened. What father among you, if his son asked for a fish, would hand him a snake? Or if he asked for an egg, hand him a scorpion? If you then, evil as you are, know how to give your children what is good, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!  Luke 11:9-13

All my years of quick reading these promise let me not notice what Jesus is promising: the Holy Spirit.  Somehow I had walked away from reading these verses focused on the “good” that the heavenly Father will give to His children, but I didn’t notice that it was defined.  The Holy Spirit. 

Yesterday I reread Basic Christianity by John Stott.  For the first time since high school because a U of Chicago grad told me that reading that book lead her to Christ.  So I revisited it and it is a very clear read.  Sometimes I get so discouraged with Christianity that I take my eyes off of the eight ball: Jesus Christ and what He said about Himself, how He lived, what eyewitnesses understood about Him, and what the resurrection was all about.  The basic stuff that gets lost in all of the hustle bustle, and parsing and creating nuance.  Anyways, Jesus was all about the Holy Spirit being the greatest gift ever.  He is going to guide us into all truth.  And deep down, that is what I long for.  Ripping away the distractions and suppositions, that is how I want to live, under the banner of truth.  And this asking for anything in the name of Jesus, and you will receive it so your joy may be complete, I am going to meditate on this today.  Because being filled with the Holy Spirit is very closely related to joy. 

At that time Jesus, full of joy through the Holy Spirit, said, "I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. Yes, Father, for this was your good pleasure." Luke 10: 21

 You became imitators of us and of the Lord; in spite of severe suffering, you welcomed the message with the joy given by the Holy Spirit. 1 Thessalonians 1:6

Which is interesting, because I am absolutely aware that my small stabs of fasting are very full of joy.  Which I noticed, but did not know perhaps the theological undergirdings of that experience. 

Jesus ends His last teaching on the Holy Spirit with a promise: “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”