Galatians 5:16-17 “So I say, let the Holy Spirit guide your lives. Then you won’t be doing what your sinful nature craves. The sinful nature wants to do evil, which is just the opposite of what the Spirit wants. And the Spirit gives us desires that are the opposite of what the sinful nature desires. These two forces are constantly fighting each other, so you are not free to carry out your good intentions.”
How hard is it for us to listen to the Spirit the first time we hear it? It is as if when we hear the Spirit guiding us to do what is right we make excuses to not listen and do what feels good. That’s why Paul says that the “two forces are constantly fighting each other.” Because we know that as believers we should want to feed the Spirit more and more with wisdom from God. We know that most of what we watch or hear during the day will open our mind to desires of our sinful nature. So if we are not filling ourselves daily with wisdom and knowledge from the Lord, our sinful nature is louder in our hearts and we struggle even more with our daily decisions. When we accept Christ as our Lord we need to remember what it says in Galatians 2:20, “My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives me. So I live in this earthly body trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.”
What are the things that cloud your thoughts?
Galatians 5:19-20 says, “When you follow the desires of your sinful nature, the results are very clear: sexual immorality, impurity, lustful pleasures, idolatry, sorcery, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outburst of anger, selfish ambition, dissention, division, envy, drunkenness, wild parties, and other sins like these. Let me tell you again, as I have before, that anyone living that sort of life will not inherit the Kingdom of God.”
Do any of these things sound familiar, they do to me, and I pray and seek God to fill me more and more so I can hear the Spirit loud and clear. That daily growth doesn’t do it alone; it takes dying to self and trusting in what we know the Lord did for us and then realizing He is the only way to be free. Amen
How hard is it for us to listen to the Spirit the first time we hear it? It is as if when we hear the Spirit guiding us to do what is right we make excuses to not listen and do what feels good. That’s why Paul says that the “two forces are constantly fighting each other.” Because we know that as believers we should want to feed the Spirit more and more with wisdom from God. We know that most of what we watch or hear during the day will open our mind to desires of our sinful nature. So if we are not filling ourselves daily with wisdom and knowledge from the Lord, our sinful nature is louder in our hearts and we struggle even more with our daily decisions. When we accept Christ as our Lord we need to remember what it says in Galatians 2:20, “My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives me. So I live in this earthly body trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.”
What are the things that cloud your thoughts?
Galatians 5:19-20 says, “When you follow the desires of your sinful nature, the results are very clear: sexual immorality, impurity, lustful pleasures, idolatry, sorcery, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outburst of anger, selfish ambition, dissention, division, envy, drunkenness, wild parties, and other sins like these. Let me tell you again, as I have before, that anyone living that sort of life will not inherit the Kingdom of God.”
Do any of these things sound familiar, they do to me, and I pray and seek God to fill me more and more so I can hear the Spirit loud and clear. That daily growth doesn’t do it alone; it takes dying to self and trusting in what we know the Lord did for us and then realizing He is the only way to be free. Amen
RSS Feed
