BOILING IT DOWN.

Have you ever left a pot cooking on the stove unattended, only to come back to see the results of your forgetfulness? Maybe you can remember getting trapped in a conversation that seemed like it was never going to end – wishing for that person to just get to the point. Or what about our need as a college student, to weed through all of the jargon in that text book, and boil it down to the bottom line? You might even have an illustration born out of your own experience…

Simply stated (to stay in line with today’s post): to boil something down implies a reducing of something in bulk or size by boiling, or condensing something down into an equivalent in summary.

In other words, get rid of all the extra filler, and let me see what truly remains. Strip away all the layers of stuffing, and show me what is at the heart of it all.

Today, I was sitting over tea with our intern from the Bible College, and the Holy Spirit prompted me to share 2 Corinthians 13:14 with him.  It reads, “May the grace of the Lord Jesus, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all“.

I think this is a really profound statement Paul is making here, and it gets overlooked far too often since it is closing out his second letter to the Corinthians.

Grace. Love. Fellowship.

After all that he writes about the gifts of the Spirit. After all that he gives us on the subject of love. After all of his statements on hardships, joy, generosity, worship, the resurrection, and tongues… he boiled it down to these three simple things.

Check out how he connects each of them to the 3 persons of the Trinity. Jesus life brings us GRACE. The Father’s unconditional LOVE is at the core of everything. The Holy Spirit was sent to have FELLOWSHIP (relationship) with you.

The amazing grace of Jesus. The unconditional love of our Father God. The never-ending fellowship of the Holy Spirit. May all of you have ALL of this that there is to have.

Has your faith journey become so confusing and complicated that you’re losing your passion? Coming back to the simplicity of the most powerful elements of our journeys in faith is pretty incredible, and realigns your spirit in the right direction again.

Dream with me about your life being filled with these 3 things. Filled with the grace of Jesus. Steamrolled by the love of the Father. Saturated in fellowship with the beloved Holy Spirit.

Which do you need the most today? It’s yours to be had. Paul said so…

What are you waiting for? Take hold of it now.

JJ