Today's devotion by the Rev. Melissa Pohlman is in poetic form. It explores spirituality. If, as Jesus says, when tempted by Satan to satisfy his hunger by turning a stone to bread, "One does not live by bread alone," what does he mean by that? Well, I think he means that there is more to life than fulfilling our physical needs. We do need to eat, drink, rest, exercise, and care for our bodies. Our bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit.(1 Corith. 6:19) But there's more to human life than the physical. There are our emotional needs. And, the focus of this devotion, our spiritual needs.
Spirituality has to do with living in relationship with God. It's about prayer, worship, God's Word, God's guidance, service- in short, all those ways we seek and find God - or maybe better, all those ways God seeks and finds us. But, there's no instruction manual for this. There's no step one, step two, step three, that everyone can follow that leads to knowing God. It just doesn't work that way. We're all different, and the way I experience God's presence in my life may be different than how someone else experiences it. Rev. Pohlman found a prayer labyrinth from circular streaks of clean water left by a janitor's scrubber on a tile floor. That was an unexpected entrance into prayer and spirituality for her. It may be something different for us. Spirituality is not laid out in a manual. It is experienced as we see evidence of God's presence in unexpected ways all around us.
I found Rev. Melissa's entry to be intriguing, but your thoughts, Pastor Jeff, help to make the message clearer. While I tend to want guidelines, if I just focus on my relationship with God, he'll lead me toward Him.
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