Romans 8:6–11 (ESV) —
6 For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. 7 For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot. 8 Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
9 You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. 10 But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. 11 If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.
NOTE: Paul writes that my body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is my opportunity for life. And I know that the Spirit is in me. I have placed my faith in Jesus and I have seen the Spirit work in my life. The promise of verse 11 is that the Spirit will give life to my mortal body because the Spirit dwells within me. So, I will in fact see change in this dead body. I will see "life" where I choose to do what is right. I can't change the flesh, it will always be hostile to God and not wanting to submit to God's law, but the Spirit will in fact help me to live a different life than I lived before. I am not perfect nor can I be perfect in this mortal body. I can be better and different as I submit to the Spirit and allow the Spirit to fill my body. How is that done? I think allowing the word of God to dwell in my richly is the key. The more I spend time in the word and in prayer, the more the Spirit controls my life. This daily devotional time, my daily reading program (where I read through the scriptures in whole), weekly scripture memory, bible study, small groups, and teaching a bible class are all ways to get the word of God more deeply into my life.
PONDER:
What am I doing to get more of God's word into my life? Once a week Sunday preaching is not sufficient nor will it change a person into a pleasing disciple. That thinking is a lie from the evil one.
PRAYER: Father, the enemy has fooled us into thinking that a little bit of God is all we need. We need as much of the Lord in our life as possible and it does not happening by just attending Sunday morning and Wednesday night programs. I pray that knowing you would be the supreme priority of our life.
No comments:
Post a Comment