Focus

Slow your breathing and become aware of the taking in and letting out of your breath. Focus on putting things aside so you will be open to what God is saying to you today.

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Read

1 Corinthians 2:1-10 (NRSV)

When I came to you, brothers and sisters, I did not come proclaiming the mystery of God to you in lofty words or wisdom. For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and him crucified. And I came to you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling. My speech and my proclamation were not with plausible words of wisdom, but with a demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith might rest not on human wisdom but on the power of God.

Yet among the mature we do speak wisdom, though it is not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are doomed to perish. But we speak God’s wisdom, secret and hidden, which God decreed before the ages for our glory. None of the rulers of this age understood this; for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. But, as it is written, “What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the human heart conceived, what God has prepared for those who love him”— these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit; for the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God.

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Reflect

Paul almost seems boastful about being humble. He says he does not come with wisdom and eloquence, but then brags about how he is led by the Spirit. I have always valued knowledge that can be verified by experiment or experience. Yet at the same time, I also value spiritual knowledge. I value the leading of the Spirit. Now that I have years of experience, when there is a seeming conflict between empirical knowledge and the leading of the Spirit, I am going with the spiritual revelation.

Paul talks about a mature wisdom that he is passing on to others. When we tune into the leading of the Spirit, it is amazing what God will do through people like Paul, and even you and me. The wisdom of Christ may seem like foolishness to the world, yet as we mature in our faith we realize just how little we really know about how God works in and through our lives. I urge you always to be listening for the leading of the Spirit of God. When we do, we will be like Paul and have a boldness that seems almost boastful and at the same time humble.

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Pray

Dear God, please help us to follow the leading of the Spirit. Help us not to rely on our own strengths or wisdom. We want to follow the leading of the Spirit with all of our being. Amen.

Go with God.