Genesis 1:2
“The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.”
Growing up in the Inland Empire, I constantly looked over my shoulder and carried pepper spray with me at all times. In college, I walked to my car with keys in hand, always prepared if I were to be approached by someone. It was unbelievably hot, the city was rampant with poverty and homeless addicts, and the crime rate was through the roof. I am not sharing this to throw a pity party for myself. I am sharing this because my upbringing has made me truly grateful for the location in which I live now.
The year I moved was unbelievably hard on me. I graduated college with no career path in place, quit two jobs that I loved, the person I was dating at the time had just deployed to a combat zone, and I packed my entire life up to move to a city where I knew no one, away from my friends and the comfort of familiarity. To keep it short and sweet, I became pretty depressed without having any direction in my life. In fact, it wasn’t until my birthday this year that I began to truly feel at peace with where I am in life. A few friends from high school drove down to surprise me, and we went to dinner on the San Clemente Pier.
As I sat at the table with three of my most treasured friends, I looked out at the ocean. I felt an overwhelming sense of peace that I hadn’t felt in a long time. My waves were finally beginning to settle, the waters were finally calming. After months of sadness and worries, I started to genuinely believe God had a plan for me, not just think He had a plan for me. In those moments as I looked at the ocean with my God-fearing friends, the Holy Spirit was present, “hovering over the face of the waters.”
The Holy Spirit surrounds us in moments of fear, worry, anger, and anxiety. It comes to us when we are losing hope when God sees us in pain when we have lost our direction. The Spirit exists to provide us with comfort and guidance, but in order to receive the gifts of the Spirit, we have to be open to receiving them. When our hearts are hardened like mine was, we stray away from the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives. If we ready ourselves to receive these gifts, we will see an abundance of blessings in our lives—peace, comfort, and contentment—among others.
Do you feel you are lacking these gifts in your life? Especially during quarantine? Have you hardened your heart to the Spirit due to our current situation? Take some time today to examine your heart and pray for openness to receive the gifts of the Spirit.