LYL 3: Challenge to Help You Carry the Load

This week, we are giving the LYL Challenge away free to all.  If you want to check out the other challenges for this series, head on over to ACCESS and login or sign up for a free user name and password. 

As you read in our recent devotion, we are talking this week about how the LYL lifestyle offers us a means of preservation when we face struggle and opposition.  The call to serve God comes with many trials and tribulations.  There are forces in the world that desire to limit and stamp out the followers of Christ.  The attacks they lob against us are fierce and can seem to be overwhelming it at times.  However, Christ promised to preserve us if we give him our lives.  We are preserved because we have the Spirit of God in us.  That Spirit is what makes us the laborers we become when we submit to sacrifice for the Kingdom, and that Spirit molds our minds when others and even we ourselves question our calling and purpose in Christ.  So how can we tap into this Spirit to find our preservation?  It's all over the New Testament and its the core of our challenge today.  To prepare for the struggle, or for those already facing struggle, use this challenge to strengthen and buoy your spirits in the face of the attacks of the world:

1. Look up everywhere the Spirit is mentioned in the New Testament.  To help you with this, we are providing a link to Blue Letter Bible where we've already done the word search.  Feel free to do your own as well.  We selected from Romans to Jude because those letters directly address the already established saints of God.  Knowing what the Holy Spirit can do within you once you have it is a very encouraging thing and these scriptures show that.  We also recommend looking for the Gifts of the Spirit, Fruit of the Spirit and any offices that the Spirit offers the saints of God. 

2.  As you study these benefits of having the Holy Spirit develop inside of your inner being, pray that God would add these benefits to you so you can become a well-rounded saint of God. 

3.  Note in a journal every time you feel that one of the benefits of the Holy Spirit has been added to you.  If you already have some of these benefits, write them down as well.

4. Thank God for the benefits of His Spirit that eases your struggle and helps guide you as you labor for The Kingdom.

We hope to hear from you about this challenge.  Leave us your thoughts in the comments.