Devotional: Walk By the Spirit

Galatians 5 “But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desires of the flesh” (Gal. 5:16, NASB). When I was a boy growing up my family thought of me as one with a hot temper. It seems to me that I believed what was said about me and I lived according to what I was frequently hearing them say. This is how it is with children. They do what people expect them to do because they believe what people say about them. Children form habits and habits are hard to break. Our habits have the potential for shaping our character. Our character is who we are and character determines what we do or do not do, even when no one else is watching us. In the book of Galatians Paul writes to the church to tell them that they are not who the Judaizers say that they are. They are free to move beyond their old ways of thinking, and behavior is not to be controlled by their old way of thinking about themselves. They have been living according to the desires of the flesh, and they have been governed by the Law. Now, they have been set free from the Law by the death of Jesus Christ (4:7). The Law was given to make us aware that we have been living by the desires of the flesh. The desires of the flesh oppose the Spirit, and the Spirit opposes the flesh (v.17). We are to put off the old man and put on the new man being led by the Spirit instead of being controlled by the flesh. “Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit” (vv. 24-25). Prayer: Father, we thank you for your Son who died to redeem us from the curse of the Law. Thank you for the Holy Spirit who enables us to do better in spite of ourselves. Amen.