One Thing at a Time

“I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear. But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. He will glorify me because it is from me that he will receive what he will make known to you. All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will receive from me what he will make known to you” (John 16:12-15). 

“I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear,” Jesus tells his small group of disciples gathered in the upper room.

How they must have turned these words over and over in their minds in the days to come! 

How they must have strained to reconstruct Jesus’s every word from that night!

Still, as Jesus gave the disciples a glimpse of what lay ahead, he promised to not leave them in the dark. “He will testify about me,” (NASV) he tells them, “he will guide you into all the truth.”

And as the Spirit came to them in tongues of fire at Pentecost, they began to testify about him – a band of fishermen speaking truth received from Christ himself, filling them with an understanding which they could previously not grasp.

Friends, as we reflect on Jesus’s words this Lenten season, let us rest easy in the knowledge that the Spirit continues to testify to us about Christ today, just as he guided the disciples in those early days of the church. He does not overwhelm us with information or understanding we cannot bear, but patiently grows our understanding as our capacity grows with the Spirit’s help.