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“The Holy Spirit is always ready to guide you toward God’s best version of yourself.”


A thought by John Ortberg from his book, The Me I Want to Be (p. 44). Zondervan. Kindle Edition. (Click on the book title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.)

Now that is good news, isn’t it?  Or is it?

John says, “Of course, many times I don’t want to be guided! I want to blow up at someone, or be greedy, or lie to get out of trouble. I want to quench the Spirit. The more my habits are formed around resentment or anxiety or greed or superiority, the more often I will quench the Spirit. It will take time and wisdom for habits to get re-formed. But the Spirit of God is tenacious. All that is needed in any moment is a sincere desire to be submitted to the Spirit’s leading. We need not worry about God’s response; a sincere heart never needs to fear that God is upset.”

Later John says, “I will mess up a lot. I am going to need his power. I know that, but I form the intention. I say to him, ‘God, with your help, as best I can, I will do what you say. I will give you my life, my time, my obedience.’ If that is not my settled intent, then it is best to be honest about it.”

John also says, “Jesus is the only one with authoritative wisdom about how to live. He is the only one to bring about the possibility of forgiveness for your sin and mine. He is the only one to give any kind of realistic hope of conquering death. To all who approach him, he is the thirst-quencher, the life-giver, the Spirit-bringer. No matter how wrongly you have erred in the past, if you are sincerely ready to listen to and obey God, you do not have to worry about God being mad at you.

“He is not that kind of God.”

And that is such good news, isn’t it?

Yes, yes!

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