New life

We have had beautiful weather this week. Warm days with no or low humidity--everything sparkles. I am sooooo enjoying my backyard. ooops don't mind the group of weeds on the ground in the picture above, I was weeding!

These vines are very sweet smelling confederate Jessamine--like perfume---their fragrance is strong!

The roses are always so pretty in springtime.

My daisies always make me smile. All of this new life reminds me of the Spirit of God. I was reading in Ephesians 5:18 where it says, "...be filled with the Spirit, (19) speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord; (20) always giving thanks for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God, even the Father;....."

I realized that "Be filled "is not in the past tense in the Greek. Instead it is the present tense of the verb in Greek and it means "Keep on being filled with the Spirit.

I also noticed in my readings in Acts that on the day of Pentecost in chapter 2:4 it says "they were all filled with the Holy Spirit..." and then again on another day in Acts 4:31 after Peter and others were put in jail and came out and prayed it says: "And when they had prayed, the place where they had gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak the word of God with boldness."

So there is a continual filling of the Holy Spirit going on. It made me think of I Thess 5:19 which says, "Do not quench the Spirit". It amazes me that we can keep on being filled or we can Quench the Spirit of God. It amazes me that we are commanded to keep on being filled---it makes me aware of how much more I need to be sensitive to the Spirit of God and how filled with prayer my life is to be.