Game On!

...be filled with the Spirit... Ephesians 5:18b

Have you ever tried to play a sport with a ball that is not properly inflated?
Basketball, volleyball, tennis, football and soccer all depend on exact inflation for excellent results.

As you master a sport the proper inflation issue becomes more and more important. The higher your skill level the more sensitive you are to an underinflated ball. It is nearly impossible to put a ball where you want it to go when it is improperly inflated.

Your ability to accurately deliver love to others depends on inner life filling by the Spirit of Christ. The better you get at delivering love to others, the more sensitive you will become about the internal filling of the Holy Spirit. Proper filling of the Spirit means love goes where it needs to go.

Perfecting the delivery of God's love is the goal of all discipleship. Putting love exactly where it needs go time after time is the skill of discipleship. This skill depends on the filling of the Holy Spirit.

As our outer life takes the blows that are part of delivering love here in this world, our inner life must be continuously renewed at the level of our spirit where we connect with the presence of Christ moment by moment.

This continuous filling is needed even as the external pressures against love grow in intensity in our outer world. As we get better at delivering God's love, the outer resistance grows as we face greater spiritual resistance.

Loss of proper internal filling will mean the delivery of love becomes heavy and damaging to our mind, emotions and will. Trying to love others without proper internal filling is like playing a demanding sport with an underinflated ball. Every play made with such a ball is hard work, lost energy and less excellence.

Every moment we try to love others without the filling of the Spirit is loving with a heavy, underinflated soul. This makes delivering love inexact, hard and energy draining.

It is no accident that this "be filled" passage in Ephesians is immediately followed by instructions on husbands loving their wives like Christ loved the church. Delivering love in marriage is not easy for anyone with an underinflated inner life! Loving like Jesus is for men and women filled with the Spirit of Christ.

Game on! Be filled!
Bud McCord
Abide International