Learn What You Need

ALL – Psalm 130:1-8
ALL – Proverbs 17:2-3
OT – 1 Kings 9:1-10:29
NT – Acts 8:14-40

Interesting passage for the day: As soon as they (Peter and John) arrived, they began praying for these new Christians to receive the Holy Spirit, for as yet he had not come upon any of them. For they had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. – Acts 8:15-16, The Living Bible

Thought: One important reason that Peter and John came to Samaria was so that Jewish believers were participants in the Holy Spirit’s coming upon the Samarian believers, keeping the church united. But what if there’s another reason? What if the Samarian believers were only baptized into the name of the Lord Jesus (rather than the names of the Father, the Lord Jesus, and the Holy Spirit) because the Lord Jesus is the only member of the Trinity they had been taught to trust in? Perhaps they had been taught the good news that Jesus Christ was the Son of God and the son of man who died on the cross to pay the penalty for their sins, but what if they hadn’t been taught that Jesus pours out His Holy Spirit on His people? What if part of Peter and John’s trip was to complete the good news by sharing how Jesus provides the Holy Spirit so that we can not only be forgiven for our sins, but can live in righteousness even now? If that’s the case (and I’m not saying it is, but it could be), then it could be that sometimes believers who have access to God’s blessings in reality don’t receive His blessings because they don’t know to ask God for them. We need to learn (and teach) the whole truth of the Bible so that we may ask the Father for all the help He’s willing to give us as we serve Him in this world.

Question: Have you stopped trying to learn more about God, leaving that for the “more spiritual” people you know? What ways do you struggle that you might not have to struggle if you found out what God offers you and asked Him for it?

To review the Bible reading plan options, please visit http://tinyurl.com/yj2o7jz.