WordLive - Year OneSample

Prepare: Praise God today for the beauty of his creation.

Power and pride
Simon is accustomed to being the one with spiritual power. He seems genuinely surprised to discover that there is a spiritual power that he has no access to and didn’t even know about. So he proceeds as he always has: he attempts to purchase the authority. As Peter explains to Simon, the Holy Spirit cannot be bought with money but rather is sent to us freely, a wonderful gift from God (v 20).

In making his request, Simon makes two mistakes which we too might make: the first is his motivation – Simon wants the power the apostles have because he wants authority, he wants to be important. To put it bluntly, Simon’s motive is pride. We too are sometimes guilty of asking God to work through us so that we will be praised.

Good gifts
The second error is Simon’s attempting to bargain with God. Perhaps we would never try to buy the power of God so directly, but we might be tempted to think that God ‘owes’ us something because of our faithfulness in tithing. Or we might suggest a barter arrangement rather than cash: ‘Lord, if you do X for me, I will do Y for you.’

Sometimes I hear people say, ‘If anyone deserves to have his prayer answered, it’s Jimmy.’ Our God delights to give good gifts to his children (Matthew 7:11), but they are exactly that: gifts. Gifts can neither be bought nor earned.

Respond: Thank God for the wonderful free gift of his Holy Spirit.

http://www.wordlive.org/Session/Classic/2012-07-13