(For the object lesson, I found thin, inexpensive food service gloves in the church kitchen. If you want to expand the illustraion...the fragile, temporary nature of these gloves makes a point that a cotton or leather glove would not!)
What is this? A glove.
Actually, it is a specific kind of glove…not the kind that you want to put on your hand to RAKE A YARD or do anything too difficult. It is a “Food Service” glove and people buy these to keep their HANDS CLEAN and their FOOD SANITARY in the kitchen.
What if you were sitting at a table and a WONDERFUL MEAL was served and you wanted “a cook’s parade”. (Do you know what a cook’s parade is?) Where WHOEVER is responsible for the meal comes out and you show them your appreciation! SO…you are banging on the table…or chiming the side of your glass…and out comes a person waving these gloves.
You say: “I want to thank whoever is responsible for this wonderful meal!” And they tell you the GLOVE is responsible…the glove did it. You’d think, “That’s crazy! A glove cannot read a recipe…cannot measure out portions…cannot check to see if the seasonings are right…cannot even cut or dice or stir or serve on its own.
WELL…if the GLOVE isn’t doing it…WHO is??? It’s the hand IN the glove that makes all the difference!
That’s what it means to be a Christian and for God to put His Holy Spirit in you. God doesn’t give us a list of things that we must do to serve or please Him. Left to ourselves with our own strength and abilities, we could never pull it off. So HE works in you and gives you the ability to do the things HE wants you to do…the things that please Him!
Philippians 2:13
He is working in you. God is helping you obey Him. God is doing what He wants done in you.
2 Corinthians 3:5-6
We don’t have the right to claim that we have done anything on our own. God gives us what it takes to do all that we do. He makes us worthy to be the servants of his new agreement that comes from the Holy Spirit and not from a written Law. After all, the Law brings death, but the Spirit brings life.
Ephesians 3:19-20
May you experience the love of Christ, though it is so great you will never fully understand it. Then you will be filled with the fullness of life and power that comes from God.
Now glory be to God! By his mighty power at work within us, he is able to accomplish infinitely more than we would ever dare to ask or hope.
James 2:26
As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead.
BY THE WAY…the glove needs to allow the hand to have FULL ACCESS…all the spaces need to be filled or the glove will be ineffective. YOUR relationship with God is a DAILY SURRENDER…a giving of ALL YOU ARE, every day to Him!
