Living by the Spirit

June 20, 2009

Today's Reading: 1 Chronicles 7-8 and Galatians 5

Oh yeah, I just love titling my entries with some vague title that sounds really spiritual. I mean, I titled this one the most vague and spiritual one I could think of.

Of course, it seems that one of those vague and spiritual phrases that gets thrown around by Christians so very often is actually in the Bible.

So what does it mean to live by the Spirit? Easy, you get the Spirit to take control of you, and it works you like a puppet. No, it never is that simple. I swear, I’ve heard so many people who say they are or know someone who is “possessed by the devil”, but I’ve just not heard of anyone ever being “possessed by God”. Man, I guess only the devil has the power to take our freewill, right? (I am being sarcastic.)

The truth is that it is quite easy to live by the Spirit, which requires us to simply be willing to surrender our freewill. I suppose that I could get into issues of being baptized by the Holy Spirit, but that will lead me to all sorts of fights amongst denominations. I mean, why put a bunch of bees in a bag and shake it?

The truth is we can always count on the Holy Spirit helping us to keep us out of trouble. There is a whole list of stuff after it that should be avoided because they are really sinful. The issue is not avoid them, but to live by the Spirit and you simple won’t do those things. This is always true.

Sometimes the best way to stop a bad habit is to simply start a new one. Instead of concentrating on quitting, you start something new that overflows the void left.

About a month ago, I realized that I still was doing with some really sick sins in my life. I couldn’t avoid it, and repented big time. I believe that I am out of the dark tunnel, but it was a habit that was stopped not by quitting old behavior, but taking on a new behavior.

Since then, I haven’t been perfect, but I can see a way to develop the fruit of the Spirit that is listed in the positive list.

In fact, if you do live by the Spirit, then you don’t have to worry about the law. Chances are that you will be following it in every sense of the word. The law is there to show us that we are doing wrong, but shouldn’t that point us to something right?