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LISTEN TO GLORIA’S VIDEO BLOG ABOVE …OR READ IT ON YOUR OWN BELOW

We all know what it’s like to be driving and someone gets in our blind spot or we get in theirs.  We receive or give that hard, or gentle, honk and a possible collision is gets redirected with concentrated movement.

Okay, driving is one thing.  We all agree on how to fix those road errors but how do we fix the blind spots on the path of life?

What happens to those blind spots that affect our emotions, our spiritual growth, or our quality of life?

Go ahead and exhale, you are not the only one that has blind spots, we all have them.

I actually call them pain spots because most times we are self-protecting when we act in certain ways.

We all need loving people to care for us beyond the surface who will kindly speak up with a spirit of care and not judgment.  And then we have to welcome godly feedback that redirects the movement of our ways.

Carl said this weekend that change happens when we are humble before God, hungry for truth, and honest with ourselves.  Something about that sentence makes me feel relief.

In Acts 18, we read about a humble man by the name of Apollos who was a great orator and Alexandrian-scholar – Alexandrian schools were collective designations for literature, philosophy, medicine, and the sciences.  He was smart.

–  I’m surprised we don’t read the words:

He is a great role model for all Christians… but make sure to focus on his humility and not only his knowledge.  Of course, we don’t read that, but we do read that he was an eloquent man and mighty in the scriptures who had been instructed in the way of the Lord… and spoke and taught accurately the things of God.

The teacher was teachable…. all that knowledge didn’t go to his head – it went to his heart.

The story changes gears and we read how he had not been instructed in the baptism of the Holy Spirit – only that of John the Baptist.

We actually read that he began to speak boldly in the synagogue and yet he did not know of the gift of gifts that brings power beyond human ability.

He did not know about the one Jesus promised would come:  the comforter, our best friend

Apollos had received all that was available to him, and he began sharing the good news.

Think about how he was still growing in his understanding of the gospel and the deeper things of God and he got busy.  I love that about him.

And then step in the awesome Jewish husband and wife team, Priscilla and Aquila who were lowly tentmakers.

Here they are sitting under the teaching of Apollos and were no doubt drawn by his passion and eloquence, but they immediately realized he was missing one of the main foundations of the kingdom of God.  So, we read that they took him aside, and lovingly explained the way more accurately.

Apollos was a bundle of talent, but he still had room to grow. He was not haughty – he was open to instruction. He did not let his ego get in his way.

He didn’t dare become a contagious believer with a high pride temperature wondering what these folks could offer him –no we see him in a humble posture ready to receive.

God doesn’t just request humility – he requires it as we see in Micah 6:8

What does God require of me, but to walk humbly…

God himself told us through His word that He gives grace to those of a contrite spirit and a broken heart, and he reminds us to humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God and He will raise us up.

We all have personal faults, spiritual blunders, marital errors, personal shortcomings, and relational blind spots, and we need the Holy Spirit.

Let the prayer be echoed from our lips found in Ps 19:12. “How can I know all the sins lurking in my heart? Cleanse me from these hidden faults.  Keep me from deliberate sins!  Don’t let them control me.  Then I will be free of guilt and innocent of great sin.”

Lord teach me, show me.  If I am wrong in an area of my life, I want to know.

I don’t want to be a blocked learner.  I don’t just want the knowledge that might threaten to puff me up and create confusion about the meaning of life.  I want to grow closer to you God.  I don’t want to be a fool.

May the steps of my life be directed of you.  I want Your will performed in my life.  Today, I declare that I am a person of destiny and I want to change my ways that do not please you.  Amen

Now back to the best friend, the Holy Spirit who came as a gift on the day of Pentecost.  Can you imagine what the life of Apollos became?  Imagine him telling others and the miracles that unfolded.

Let’s be humble before God, hungry for truth, and honest with ourselves.