Can I Have Seconds?

Daily Reading:  2 Kings 2

When they had crossed, Elijah said to Elisha, “Ask what I shall do for you, before I am taken from you.” And Elisha said, “Please let there be a double portion of your spirit on me.” (2 Kings 2.9)

Devotional Thought: “Ask what I shall do for you, before I am taken from you.”  What a question!  I’m sure Elisha had many thoughts running through his head as he considered his mentor’s life, but he answers with conviction: “Please let there be a double portion of your spirit on me,” (v9).  The Spirit of the Lord was evident in Elijah’s life, and Elisha wanted that Spirit in double measure!  At this time in history, before the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, the Spirit’s presence was rare.  The prophet Joel had foreseen the blessed time when the Spirit would dwell among us. “And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh,” (Joel 2:28).

We are easily frustrated with the “stiff-necked” Israelites, who never really seem to "get it."  But we are not so different and have less excuse!  When we profess faith in Jesus, we are promised the Holy Spirit. Jesus himself said he would give us "another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth.”  Yet so often we take the very presence of God for granted!  We don’t believe, we don’t love others as we should, we ignore conviction to go our own way.  Elisha didn’t take it for granted.  To him, the presence of God through the Spirit was something to be valued above all else. 

What if we felt the same way?  It is incredible that God would once more lower Himself to dwell among us, and even more incredible that it is a free gift of grace.  The Bible says that we have not because we ask not.  Will you, like Elisha, be bold enough to ask for the Spirit - for a double portion of the Spirit?

Jenny

Prayer: Jesus, just as we give good things to our children when they ask, you have said that the Father will give the Spirit to those who ask him!  I ask you today to fill me anew with a double portion of your Spirit!  Amen.

Psalm of the Day: Psalm 10.12-15

12 Arise, O LORD; O God, lift up your hand; forget not the afflicted.

13 Why does the wicked renounce God and say in his heart, "You will not call to account"?

14 But you do see, for you note mischief and vexation, that you may take it into your hands; to you the helpless commits himself; you have been the helper of the fatherless.

15 Break the arm of the wicked and evildoer; call his wickedness to account till you find none.