Daily Devotion with Pastor Tong Liu: Today's Passage

2 Corinthians 2:3

You show that you are a letter from Christ, the result of our ministry, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.

Every believer is an letter from Christ, a witness to the world. How is this letter written? Paul said, it is written not with ink, but written with the Spirit of the living God. In other words, it is not written by human methods, nor with human experience and wisdom, but with the Spirit of God.

The Holy Spirit of God is the one who is closest to us within the Trinity. Within the Trinity relationship, God the Father is the One who plans the salvation, God the Son Jesus is the one implementing the plan, while the Holy Spirit is the One who brings about salvation to the individual believers, so that we are born again and cleansed. The Holy Spirit also preserves us until eternity and gives us the power to minister. In the tradition of the Church, the doctrine of the Holy Spirit is the least taught doctrine. In the Apostles' Creed, three sentences referred to God the Father, twelve mentioned Jesus, but only talks about the Holy Spirit. No wonder many believers have little knowledge about the Holy Spirit. Without knowledge, there comes misunderstanding and fear. However, the Holy Spirit delights to draw close to us and wants to guide us and support us. I often say that the love of the Holy Spirit is like a mother's love. It is the type of love that never forsakes. No matter how rebellious the children are, a mother will still love them. The Spirit of God shapes our lives in the same way, until our lives become the letter from Christ.

Next, Paul said this letter is not written on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts. The stone tablets represent the Old Testament law. Those who live under the law in the Old Testament time had no power in keeping the law. Because no matter how hard we try, we can never attain God's standard of perfection. But when we came to the New Testament era, God's Word is written on our hearts through the Holy Spirit. It is no longer a force on the outside that forces us to meet the requirements of the law. The Spirit of God in you and my heart is working to bring about change. I used to love to drink coffee. When I first decided to quit coffee, it was extremely difficult. But when the Holy Spirit moved in my heart to give up coffee, the desire to drink coffee completely went away. It was a completely different feeling and I have not had coffee since. It does not depend on compliance with the so-called doctrines, but the Holy Spirit himself is working in our hearts, so we may obey His commands from the depths of our hearts.

Pray with Pastor Tong

Dear Holy Spirit, thank you, because you are the God who engraves God's Word in our hearts. We pray you will do the work of shaping our hearts so that we will no longer live in the bondage of the flesh or the law, but live in the spirit of true freedom. We thank you and pray in the victorious name of Jesus, Amen!