What father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will instead of a fish give him a serpent; or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him! Luke 11:11–13
Dear Father, it’s been forty-seven days since Easter Sunday. That makes this upcoming Lord’s Day Pentecost Sunday—the day when we celebrate the outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon your new covenant family. Yet like ignoring a familiar houseguest, we can too easily take this honored heart guest for granted. We repent, especially as we recall what a special Person he is and what essential work he does.
Blessed Holy Spirit, it’s because of you we’re even capable of believing the gospel. If you hadn’t given us new life and faith in Jesus, we’d still be dead in our sins and trespasses. You’ve also sealed us forever as the Father’s possession. Nothing can separate us from his love. You’re the firstfruits of our final redemption—the guarantee that one day we will enjoy eternal life with the whole pan-national family of God in the perfect world of the new heaven and new earth.
It’s by you we hear the Father tell us we’re his beloved children. It’s by you that we learn more of the glory and grace of Jesus, for you are always drawing attention to him. It’s by you we are convicted of the sin remaining in us and convinced of Jesus’ righteousness for us.
It’s through your power we’re able to put to death everything in us that contradicts the gospel. It’s through your work that good fruit is being produced in our lives. We’re becoming more and more like Jesus only because of your unrelenting work in our hearts.
We pray and worship acceptably only because of you. In fact, you’re praying inside of us right now, and you continue to do so even when we’re too undisciplined or too broken to pray. It’s by you that we are gifted for service and empowered for mission. How we praise you for your manifold graces and work in our lives!
Father, we take Jesus’ promise seriously. Today, we ask for more of the Holy Spirit’s work in our lives. Fish and eggs are great, but what we need is a greater supply of your Holy Spirit. Free us from our fears of what that might mean. Free us from settling for a correct theology of the Spirit with little current experience of his work in our midst. Come, Holy Spirit, come. Break us, melt us, mold us, use us. So very Amen, we pray in Jesus’ exalted name. Amen.