Devotion – Who is the Helper in your life?

I will send you the Helper from the Father (John 15:26).

If you glance at various versions of the Bible, you will read many descriptive words in this verse. The helper is variously translated as comforter, advocate, counsellor, friend, spirit. So I guess we have a choice as to how we imagine or more correctly realise, the Holy Spirit living in us.

Perhaps the Holy Spirit of God is all of these things listed above, or at least has characteristics of a helper, comforter, advocate, counsellor, friend and spirit. That makes some sense to me because then the Holy Spirit is not just a helper, comforter, advocate, counsellor, friend or spirit but is all-encompassing – God living in us!

We know Christ lives in us (Galatians 2:20) through the Holy Spirit. We receive Christ through the Holy Spirit whenever we come to communion. We are constantly reassured through the forgiveness of sins that Christ lives in us through the Holy Spirit. So, this all-encompassing support from God is ours.

This leads me to ask whether we do well to turn the title question around. Just as in the story of the Good Samaritan, Jesus turned the question from ‘Who is my neighbor?’ to ‘To whom can I be a neighbor?’ (Luke 10:29, 36). Perhaps, in addition to asking, ‘Who is the helper in your life?’, we can ask, ‘To whom can I be a helper?’ (comforter, advocate, counsellor, friend?) If Christ lives in us through the Holy Spirit – and I give thanks for that – how can I support, encourage, advise, listen and be with those in need? We have it in us to do so. Let’s look for opportunities.

Prayer Points

We pray for and give thanks for our wonderful administration and finance team

We give thanks for the Holy Spirit who lives in us and fill us with Christ-like qualities

We ask that the Holy Spirit will strengthen and encourage us

We pray for the Khy Lout, Lai Sui and Laiteng families

Micah Award

To Yah Sang for showing love and service to his classmates.

To Htoo for showing love and service to his classmates.