Try To Do Your Best, Even If You’re Not At Your Best

Word-Of-The-Day: ‘<Jesus said,>“But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.”’ (John 14:26)

There are those moments in our lives when we are not at our best. It can be when we aren’t feeling well, or we don’t get enough rest. For me personally, it’s usually when I get irksome over situations; not stressful, as I’ve been in stressful situations all my adult life, but by those people or things that throw the monkey wrench into the gears, especially when it’s by people who should know better when its a routine activity.

When these times occur, we can be off our ‘A-game’ when it comes to being Christ-like. If you are battling a severe head cold, for example, you may not want to have a lengthy discussion on the phone with a salesperson or customer service representative. They may try to be personable, but your goal for the day is to shut down, survive, and get better. You become terse and short with them, and they hang up quickly – which irks you even more.

Or it could be the person who plays ‘Captain Obvious’, when you are driving home in a torrential downpour and the phone rings and stops, rings and stops, rings and stops. No voice mail. You get to a spot where you can pull off into a flooding parking lot to give a call back and respond, and person on the other end says, ‘I just want you to know to be careful; there’s a bad storm with lots of rain on your way here.’ The response is usually sarcastic and along the lines of, ‘I would have never guessed that – I thought I won a free car wash.’

These are the times when we don’t represent Jesus very well. Waking up in the middle of the night, battling illness or pain, or being stressed or irked usually doesn’t bring out our best in our own selves or our Christian walk. Our thoughts may not always jump to placing Jesus first, unfortunately. We all have these moments as we are, well, human.

We all get a little concerned on whether we appropriately represent Jesus, and we do often have those moments where ‘self’ overrides ‘Spirit’ and we don’t represent Christ as we should.   However, those with Faith have the Holy Spirit would will give us not only guidance but also will lead us when necessary. The Holy Spirit is with us 24/7/365 (366 on leap years); whether we feel good or bad, calm or stressed, He is there to provide us guidance.

In our times of weakness, it is best to try to focus more on Him than self; it is a learned approach and not easy. It is also something not to beat yourself up with when you fail; we all fall short, sometimes we will not live up to the expectations of what we think a Christian should be. It’s normal and it happens. When it happens, we should not be overly dramatic in our self-critique but pray for the Spirit to teach us and guide us to better handle ourselves in these situations for the future.  

It is not just speaking Truth that the Holy Spirit provides; He will lead you into proper action, and guide you in what to do and where to go when necessary.  Through any troubles that pass, the Holy Spirit is involved in some capacity telling us how to respond and act, if we tune in and listen.  The Spirit gives us Assurance and Peace as the storms in our lives pass through. 

Sometimes its not the storms or the ebbs in our lives that stop us from being our best to represent Christ, but our fear. Many who think to be meek should also be weak don’t share the Word of Christ with others in public, claiming that they do not know what to say as an excuse, when it is the fear of rejection that projects the weakness and failure to properly respond. 

If you are truly a Faithful Follower in Christ, the Holy Spirit will give you the script on what to say; the Holy Spirit will speak through your own mouth in your own voice the words necessary to speak the Gospel. He will also provide the Spiritual strength to overcome your doubt and any rejection that may befall you in your witnessing. 

This doesn’t mean the Spirit prevents damage or inconvenience, or even injury; what the Spirit does in these situations is He provides you the proper means to respond to when these things happen.  The Holy Spirit can bolster your strength, and provide you guidance to move forward and face the storms in your life and not hide in fear.

We often think of God the Father, and Jesus the Son, but we sometimes neglect the 3^rd but equally important part of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit.  Remember the Spirit is what God gave us when Jesus’ time on Earth came to a temporary ending, and He is who is with us always, indwelling within us.  Tune in to Him and let the Holy Spirit guide you!