What Are You On?

Daily Reading: Acts 2

Scripture Focus: For these people are not drunk, as you suppose... (Acts 2.15a)

Devotional Thought: Some years ago, I received a call from a man whose little girl attended my church. He was, as they say, "feeling no pain." After talking with him for a few minutes, and not being able to make heads or tails from what he was saying, I asked him, "John, have you been drinking?" I thought he would deny it, but his answer surprised me, "Preacher, I'm drunk as a monkey!"

There you have it. I didn't get much more out of that conversation, but there were better days ahead.

In Acts 2, some people thought that the disciples of Jesus were drunk. Their problem was that they did understand! They weren't supposed to be able to understand these unschooled speakers. They were foreigners! What was going on? The answer lay in the fact that those speakers were filled with the Holy Spirit.

That story makes me ask the obvious: "Am I so full of Jesus - so full of the Holy Spirit - that people struggle to understand what's wrong with me?" Are you? Like the Apostle Paul, does your joy know no bounds? It's funny that in Ephesians 5, Paul compares being Spirit-filled with being drunk. There must be some similarities. We are not to get our buzz with alcohol or with drugs. We are to get it with Jesus!

I've never been accused of being drunk as a monkey, but I have had people ask me, "What are you on?" I like that.

So, what are you on?

Prayer: Lord, you have said that the joy of the Lord is my strength. Help my joy to know no bounds. Fill me to overflowing with your Spirit, so that others will ask me what is going on with my life, so that I can tell them about you. Amen.

Psalm of the Day: Psalm 65.9-13

9 You visit the earth and water it;

you greatly enrich it;

the river of God is full of water;

you provide their grain,

for so you have prepared it.

10 You water its furrows abundantly,

settling its ridges,

softening it with showers,

and blessing its growth.

11 You crown the year with your bounty;

your wagon tracks overflow with abundance.

12 The pastures of the wilderness overflow,

the hills gird themselves with joy,

13 the meadows clothe themselves with flocks,

the valleys deck themselves with grain,

they shout and sing together for joy.