By Melanie Mar Chow

In living for God, it is important to understand how to respond to the Holy Spirit’s invitation. A new year, 2024, just started. We should employ our best gift of Christmas, Jesus. 

As I write I realize that the end of January means many well-intended resolutions will also end. Friends mentioned they were looking forward to February when the crowds lessen at their gyms. The desire to do something and stay with it, for many of us, is not just related to working out, balancing checkbooks, and housecleaning, which all falter without intention.  Our spiritual life also begins to become inactive, quenching our intention to live by the Spirit (1 Thessalonians 5:19). 

As we serve God, we know the desire to live His way to better the Kingdom. One of my favorite passages is when Paul wrote to Timothy to remind him that his life and service continued in the good works modeled by and done ahead of him through his mother and grandmother.  Paul then admonishes him to fan the flames of that Spirit in his own life (2 Timothy 1:5-7). 

How? By yielding ourselves to God’s Spirit working in us. We can build upon what we gained from our families — church or biological — to allow for God’s ways. Contrasted in Galatians 5 is the lust of the flesh and the fruit of the Spirit.  As we increase in God’s ways, there is more expression of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control that overcome the fleshy practices for freedom.

What are some of the things that might be causing the fire to decrease in our hearts to live fully for Jesus?  It can come as simply as losing focus on whose life we are living and what it is we are about.  How easy is it to pray daily and invite the Spirit to guide us to heed new opportunities?  It is just as easy to read and meditate on God’s teachings and not apply them to our lives daily. 

An example for me is as simple as trusting the Spirit’s insights and guidance regarding others.  I find that being in the blessing of community, I gain the invitation of the Spirit to pray.  It is not only my prayers that are instrumental, but one can never know exactly who and when a person is praying, nor do we know if it was MY prayer engaging the Spirit’s answer.  Finally, we should give thanks!  Our thankfulness affirms God’s ways. 

That is what I love about my community which includes people who are not like me.  I have been married for a long time. Life would be boring if I continued to do things my way all the time.  My husband prays every morning, I pray whenever I’m prompted, but neither is better than when the Spirit is working. Example? A late-night invitation came to pray for a friend’s surgery that seemed challenging.  Many prayed that evening. We left with a reminder to set alarms to pray in the early morning for surgery preps at 8 am, then permitted ourselves to sleep. Later that evening we learned something postponed the surgery.  The delay enabled more family to come, and even better, a specialty surgeon with more insight into the needs was visiting and guided recovery. They were so thankful! 

If we fail to review what we are supposed to be about, we can falter and lose sight of ways to live more like Jesus. The Spirit graciously provides opportunities for us to live out God’s intentions.  That’s why our hearts quicken when we can be used to help someone when we make time to listen to their needs and offer God’s assistance. 

The best way to live a Spirit-led life is to regularly evaluate how we live and compare if we are living God’s ways.  I’m grateful that being in a community helps the most.  It is great to receive letters from my missionary friends asking for prayers and insights into how they are serving and living.  It is still amazing how we can recognize or yield those requests to God. 

The Holy Spirit enables us to live in the manner of Christ and know that we are on the right track because we experience freedom and encouragement from others and see evidence of transformation not only in our lives but also in our communities. Individually and collectively, we get to see God change or move in areas that we could not readily do for ourselves.  When those prayers get answered, don’t forget to give thanks!

Rev. Melanie Mar Chow serves God through Asian American Christian Fellowship, the campus ministry division of the Japanese Evangelical Missionary Society (JEMS). She has been an ordained American Baptist minister since 2004. A Pacific Northwest native, she currently lives with her husband and daughter in Southern California.