Treatment for our troubles: Part 3

There are some gifts, the value of which is impossible to rightly measure. Now to be clear, for the purposes of this article, I am not thinking primarily about some tangible object. Yes, probably all of us have some treasured trinket given to us by someone special who is no longer in our lives; and these objects hold significant sentimental value. For example, I have a couple of worn-out harmonicas that my grandfather played many years ago. They are rusted and half falling apart, and I certainly can’t play them. But because they’re the only possessions of his I own, I have an emotional attachment to them. While these tiny tarnished instruments have a certain personal nostalgia, and it’s doubtful I’ll ever let them go, I have something of my grandfather’s of far greater value; some wisdom he passed on.

I remember sitting in my grandparents’ house, a self-absorbed know-it-all teenager griping about how hard life was. If memory serves, I was complaining about having to work so hard for so little money. After all, I was only making $3.50 an hour! Grandpa sort of chuckled, took a deep breath as plastic tubes pumped oxygen up his nostrils and into his lungs, and said, “Son, you just don’t know how good you’ve got it.” You see, Grandpa lived during the Great Depression. He worked, and I mean worked hard … for nearly nothing. For some length of time, (I’m not sure how long) the only job he could find was driving a dump truck. Each day, he would drive this beat-up old dump truck down to the river side and using nothing but a shovel; fill the dump truck with sand, drive it to the jobsite, unload it, and then start over. He did this all day, every day – for a dollar a day. Literally, he was paid a dollar a day. Needless to say, Grandpa didn’t have a great deal of sympathy for a kid flipping burgers in an air-conditioned building making three times an hour what he made in a day.

With a serious tone he said, “Be thankful you have a job. Be thankful you’re able to get up and go to work. Be thankful they pay you every week; ‘cause son, there were several weeks, I didn’t get paid at all.”

I’m not going to say his words had an immediate impact on my life, or that I stopped my adolescent whining simply because that generation had it so rough. Sure, I was amazed at his stories of how things used to be and how tough they had it, but it really took years for his wise words to take root. While I still sometimes complain (yes, preachers complain too) the gift of his wisdom echoes in my mind. The experiences he shared, the genuine concern for my maturity and the counsel he gave, are a treasure I hold dear. No, these are not gifts I can put a dollar figure on, but it is a treasure I find invaluable and irreplaceable.

I relate this story for this reason. In that upper room, on the last night Jesus would spend with His disciples prior to His crucifixion, Jesus promised to give His disciples a gift that was intangible, but certainly invaluable and irreplaceable. Specifically, the gift of the indwelling Holy Spirit. When listening to my grandfather’s guidance, it took awhile for the merit of his wisdom to settle in my mind. In like manner, on that night, though intrigued by what Jesus said, it wasn’t until later that the disciples would truly begin to value the glorious gift of the Holy Spirit.

Let me remind you … in this series, we have made constant reference to John 16:33 where Jesus said, “These things I have spoken unto you, that in Me you may have peace …” We have efforted looking back over the preceding chapters into hearing what “these things were that offer treatment for our many troubles. Perhaps one of the most undervalued statements Jesus made that night was the promise of the abiding presence of the Holy Spirit.

You see, every believer, at the moment of conversion, is given the gift of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Let me say that again. Every person who comes to saving faith in Jesus Christ is immediately and permanently indwelt by the Holy Spirit of God.

It is the Spirit who breathes life into the spiritually dead sinner and grants them repentance toward God and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. It is the Spirit of God who not only saves the believer, but also sanctifies the believer. It is the Spirit of God that gives every Christian unique spiritual gifts for serving Christ’s kingdom (1 Corinthians 12:4-11). The Holy Spirit leads the believer into understanding greater biblical truth (John 16:13). The Spirit of God comforts us when we are hurting (John 14:16-18). Every believer is sealed (a mark of permanent ownership) by the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 4:30).

This gift is so special and hugely beneficial, that Jesus actually said …. “It is good for you that I leave, so that the Holy Spirit can come” (John 16:7). In other words, Jesus is saying, I can’t stay with you, but I am not going to abandon you. I will send you the Spirit of God, who can and will be with you and in you!

Every person who has been born again, has the constant abiding presence of God, in the person of the Holy Spirit living within them. This, dear friend, is a gift that is beyond description. It is a gift that is invaluable and irreplaceable. Christians often underestimate and underuse the gift of the indwelling Spirit. However, it is the abiding presence of the Holy Spirit that brings us peace and comfort unlike anything this world affords.

Even better than Grandpa’s wisdom, is the Spirit of Truth given to every believer. He can speak peace to our troubled souls.

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