I once listened as the Pastor of a small church preached about the Holy Spirit. He described the scene when his family got together for Christmas. The kids quickly tore into their packages, leaving the room overflowing with wrapping paper. Even his parents got into the act…but not his grandfather.

His grandfather would sit in a chair with his presents sitting unopened on the floor beside him. He would open them sometime after Christmas…alone.

When he died, they discovered he had kept most of the packages. Many of them had been opened, though a few had not been. The saddest part was that the ones he had opened had never been used. Sweaters and other items were still in their opened boxes. They were his, but he had never fully received or taken advantage of those gifts given in love.

I feel many Christians do the same thing with the Holy Spirit. He is the Father’s promised gift and enters our life at the moment of salvation. Yet many of us never allow Him to control us…fill us…empower us. We have Him in our lives, but we don’t take advantage of His strength and guidance. More often than not we are not filled with the Holy Spirit and that is sad.

I hope you will do a couple of things. One, read the daily “UNHINDERED DEVOTIONALS” on our web site. This week each of the devotions will deal with the Old Testament account of the Holy Spirit’s work in the life of a believer. Two, join us for worship the next two Sunday as we learn about the Holy Spirit and how He works in us. It is my prayer that you will not leave the sweater in the box, but that you wear it.

Pastor Steve Hogg