Day 29: June 2Scripture: Luke 11: 9-13 Ask. Knock. Seek. Find. What are our expectations as we gather for Annual Conference? Some of us dismiss what happens at Annual Conference as having nothing to do with our REAL ministries. So we come expecting nothing. If we come expecting nothing, nothing is probably what we will experience. The truth of life is that we usually find what we expect, even when we do not explicitly ask for it, knock on doors to receive it, or seek it wherever it may be found. Our expectations are reflected in our prayers, our attitudes, our actions or failure to act. We do not seek when we do not expect to find. We do not seek where we do not expect to find. We do not ask for what we do not think is available. We do not knock on doors we do not expect to open. Expect nothing. Find nothing. If we do not expect something great to happen, something meaningful to happen, we will not pray for the Holy Spirit’s power to be manifest in what we do and decide at Annual Conference. We need the Holy Spirit. We need to ask for its guidance and power. We need to knock with our prayers on the doors of heaven for the Spirit’s presence and movement in our Conference lives. We need to seek ways to be open ourselves for the working of the Spirit in and through us. Only then will we find the refreshing and renewing and empowering action of God in our Conference. As we move forward in and out of our conferencing into our many locations across the Conference, we ought to be agents of scriptural holiness. That requires the driving passion that motivates a person to set out in faith, to step forward in faith, to step courageously into places, to people, into situations expecting to find that God has gone before us. It requires such a person to be used by the Spirit of Holiness to ask, knock, seek when to “find” seems challenging, daunting, or even overwhelmingly impossible. In your journey with Christ, have you found for yourself that Holy Ghost passion and power? Do you expect it to be present and active in Annual Conference and in our decisions and actions? Only then will we find it to be so. Prayer: Magnanimous God, open us to ask, knock, seek so we can find what You will and want. Increase our willingness to be expectant people who will recognize what You want us to “find.” Amen. Youtha Hardman-Cromwell |