shortlady
Member
- Joined
- Aug 3, 2005
- Messages
- 2,696
Live by the Spirit and Don't Carry out the Desires of the Flesh
"So I say live by the Spirit and you will not carry out the sinful desires of the flesh." Just what do these words from Galatians 5 really mean? How am I supposed to 'live by the Spirit'? And who really expects me to refrain from the 'desires of the flesh'? Are you already under enough guilt for not living like you know you should? Well don't despair; Romans 8 tells us there's no condemnation in Christ Jesus! That's Good News. 'Living by the Spirit' is all about being God-focused rather than me-focused.
Listen to how Romans 8:6-8 sounds in The Message paraphrase: "Obsession with self in these matters is a dead end; attention to God leads us out into the open, into a spacious, free life. Focusing on the self is the opposite of focusing on God. Anyone completely absorbed in self ignores God and ends up thinking more about self than God. They ignore who God is and what He is doing. But if God himself has taken up residence in your life, you can hardly be thinking more of yourself than of Him." And the promise for those who do this is Power. That's right. God rewards our efforts to focus on Him with the Power of His Holy Spirit. This is what gets us beyond the rules and regulations and into real life - living by His Spirit. As it says in verse 10, "For you who welcome Him, in whom He dwells - even though you still experience all the limitations of sin - you yourself experience life on God's terms." Now that sounds like the kind of life worth living! God be with you all...
"So I say live by the Spirit and you will not carry out the sinful desires of the flesh." Just what do these words from Galatians 5 really mean? How am I supposed to 'live by the Spirit'? And who really expects me to refrain from the 'desires of the flesh'? Are you already under enough guilt for not living like you know you should? Well don't despair; Romans 8 tells us there's no condemnation in Christ Jesus! That's Good News. 'Living by the Spirit' is all about being God-focused rather than me-focused.
Listen to how Romans 8:6-8 sounds in The Message paraphrase: "Obsession with self in these matters is a dead end; attention to God leads us out into the open, into a spacious, free life. Focusing on the self is the opposite of focusing on God. Anyone completely absorbed in self ignores God and ends up thinking more about self than God. They ignore who God is and what He is doing. But if God himself has taken up residence in your life, you can hardly be thinking more of yourself than of Him." And the promise for those who do this is Power. That's right. God rewards our efforts to focus on Him with the Power of His Holy Spirit. This is what gets us beyond the rules and regulations and into real life - living by His Spirit. As it says in verse 10, "For you who welcome Him, in whom He dwells - even though you still experience all the limitations of sin - you yourself experience life on God's terms." Now that sounds like the kind of life worth living! God be with you all...
