Every Cloud Has a Silver Lining

photograph by Sallee Bonham

Random God thoughts appear in my mind when I am driving. I don't know why. It just happens. I want to share a random God thought that occurred to me this week as I drove home from work. 

 I saw a beautiful cloud framed against the deep blue sky. The cloud edges shone  brilliantly white in the afternoon sunlight. The folk saying, "Every cloud has a silver lining." drifted through my mind. Then, my God thought moment occurred," Every child of God has a silver lining too. We are lined by the Holy Spirit that was given to us by God, after Jesus died on the cross."

I picture the Holy Spirit as a silvery white, shining light; similar to the brilliant white of the cloud edges that I saw as I drove home. On the outside, we are a physical human being, but we contain an inner spiritual lining that is the Holy Spirit. This "holy lining" claims us as God's. How cool is that? Every Christian is lined, or given, the Holy Spirit because we belong to the Lord.

The Bible tells us we were given the Holy Spirit by God. The bold type in the scriptures is my emphasis. 

Acts 15:8 NIV
God, who knows the heart, showed that he accepted them by giving the Holy Spirit to them, just as he did to us.

1 Corinthians 6:19 NIV
Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own;

John 14:17 NIV

the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. 

2 Timothy 1:14 NIV

Guard the good deposit that was entrusted to you--guard it with the help of the Holy Spirit who lives in us.