April 14
“And do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit; speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord; always giving thanks for all things in the name of our God, even the Father;” (Ephesians 5:18-20 )
It seems apparent from the quoted verse that being filled with the Spirit involves speaking to one another, that is, to other believers, in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord.
How often do we do that? I know I don’t go around the house singing praises to the Lord, and although I try to direct conversations with other Christians to spiritual things, I confess I don’t know often speak the psalms or hymns to them, and I don’t sing to them to them either. I sing with them one time per week in the church service, but not in Sunday school, and not very many other times during gatherings of the church. We regularly have family devotions, and sometimes my children or I will sing spiritual songs around the house, but I never really thought about it as a conscious, deliberate, intentional thing to try to encourage others and lift them up in the Lord. I think nowadays we tend to put spiritual music on, but I think that is not as powerful as when we sing ourselves.
Perhaps that should be a more deliberate practice, to do more spontaneous singing at various times in the church and in the home. Perhaps that would allow the Spirit to work more, and fill us more often. Perhaps singing opens us up to the Spirit’s filling, when we openly and joyously acknowledge God and His working in our lives. It’s hard to sing quietly when we are excited about something, so it is also a testimony. Singing is a rejoicing testimony to one another and to the Lord. It seems the Lord works through singing more than I have realized until now.
In addition, Paul mentions thanksgiving. Are you known as a thankful person? Does thankfulness characterize you? Are you “always giving thanks for all things?” I know I certainly am not. This is a big opportunity for improvement for me. I tend to focus on what is missing, what is wrong, rather than what I have been given and all the things that are right. I have always been a “glass half empty” person and not a “glass half full” person, to my regret and shame. That is one more piece of evidence that I can use to help me discern if the Spirit is not filling me, and one more area I can improve upon and ask for God’s help.
In summary, if we are honest with ourselves, for many of us anyway, the deeds of the flesh that reveal themselves in our lives are more numerous than we’d like to admit, and concurrently, the fruit of the Spirit is less evident in our lives than we’d like to see. But praise God, we have a Friend, a Helper and Comforter residing in us who is bigger and stronger than any weakness we have. We just need to learn to be conscious of His presence and learn to follow His lead and access His power much more than we do today. This will be our topic tomorrow, how to be filled with the Spirit.