365 Days with God - Day 114: Of Flesh & Spirit

I'm giving myself a challenge. Read the Bible each day for a whole year, following the ESV Study Guide 1-year plan. Each day, I will post whatever God has revealed to me in His Word, and how it is changing me. A friend of mine once said that nothing has changed her life as much as reading the bible each day - and I'm excited for how this will change me. Join me on an adventure into the heart of God - and day by day, we can learn more about who He is and what that means to us!

- Andy Catts

Day 114, April 13, 2014

Readings: Psalm 114, Leviticus 20, Isaiah 25, Galatians 5

 We are no longer under the "law" - that is, we are no longer bound by a code of cleanliness that separates us from God. Very freeing, that is - Jesus has paid the price, and stood in place of us for the punishment we should have received for our sin.

But what do we do in light of that grace?

Daily, we are being remade by Christ and the Holy Spirit. Daily, we encounter choices about how to live. Who are we then? What choices do we make? If God has given us grace for everything through Jesus, the law is abolished, and He loves everyone just the way they are, what then is "wrong" to us? Is not the law done away with?

But we are not just creatures of a physical nature. We are physical and spiritual - our bodies in action and our spirit with intention. Our actions should be a physical reflection of the spirit within us.

But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we lived by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit. (Galatians 5:16-25)

We live in a culture that is constantly attempting to justify sin. This and that are OK because God forgives all, because Jesus is accepting and tolerant, and what's really wrong with (insert sin found above here.)? We are no longer bound to these desires! Christ, his death and resurrection, are powerful enough to overcome them. Powerful enough to give us freedom. Powerful enough to enable us to live by His Spirit, not our own fleshly desires.

Are you letting your flesh overcome the Spirit? Or are you daily on your knees, asking the Spirit to overcome your flesh?