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Experiencing God’s Freedom for Real
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Galatians 5:22-25 By contrast, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against such things. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also be guided by the Spirit.
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Download audio fileDo you know what I’ve noticed? The more I make a point of spending some quiet time with Jesus each day, the easier it becomes to avoid sin.
Most days, first thing in the morning – I’m a morning person you see, always have been – I just spend a quiet half hour or so, with the door to my study closed, and my Bible open. Sometimes a bit more time, sometimes a bit less time.
Now often there are things on my mind. Stresses, pressures, this isn’t going quite the way I’d like. There’s a struggle in a relationship over there. Whatever … it can get you down can’t it? The burden, the load, the pressure – and when you’re carrying that sort of stuff around, you start behaving badly.
You do, you get cranky, agitated, resentful – there’s bitterness in your heart perhaps and man on those days, the devil is going to have an absolute field day with you. But somehow in that quiet time with Jesus, He stills my heart. Invariably, I end up walking away and starting my day with an incredible peace, with His joy in my heart.
And it’s much, much harder for the devil to attack me and tempt me. Have you experienced that too?
You see, I think what’s going on there is that the Holy Spirit is doing His work in us. Lifting God’s Word off the page, etching it onto our hearts so that it becomes part of who we are. And that … that bears fruit in your life … as opposed to the rubbish that you and I are prone to carry on with.
Galatians 5:22-25: By contrast, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against such things. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also be guided by the Spirit.
That fruit of God’s goodness, just naturally grows out of those times with the Lord each day. I think … I think that’s what it is to walk in the Spirit.
Look, I’ve tried doing it the other way – just racing off and doing it all myself. But each and every time the devil trips me up. Each and every time he robs me of my peace and joy. Each and every time I end up bound up in my old sinful ways again, instead of living out the freedom that Jesus died and rose again to give me.
Jesus didn’t just do the whole Cross and empty tomb thing for us two thousand years ago. He sent His Spirit to live in us, to make those things real. To make the freedom real.
That’s God’s Word. Fresh … for you … today.
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