Rejoice:

 

Read:

¹⁶ So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. ¹⁷ For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you want.

Our first truth in relation to these verses was that sin is a choice, kinda. Today I want to point out what I have talked about many times before, our second point:

1)Sin is a choice, Kinda

2)We naturally want the opposite of God.

Again, we’ve discussed this a lot but I want to dive into a new area of it. These verses show us that there is constantly a battle being waged. That’s obvious. SO what’s the reality behind this? Well, the reality is that you are always going to have that flesh around, and though it may feel silent it is still at war. Our flesh is tricky and often works with the assistance of Satan to begin developing a track. It works to lead us into habits of poor spiritual discipline, poor sleep habits, habits of isolation, etc. The unfortunate thing about this is what we mentioned in our last devotion. We have developed an incredible trust in our flesh because, well it’s always been here for us right?! We have history. Therefore, we don’t ALWAYS pay attention to how our flesh may be working negatively.

So what’s the solution? We need to be aware of our flesh and keep an eye on our habits etc. We must wake daily and petition for the Lord to make clear what is happening currently that may be building up the flesh and preparing it for a battle with the Spirit. What the flesh does is it builds up habits/power/familiarity so that when the Spirit says something it (the flesh) has all of this background support working so that it can out weigh what He (the Spirit) says. We must be aware of this and constantly evaluating it with the help of the Spirit. If we spend too much time leaving ourselves to ourselves and not focusing on the Spirits guidance we will end up shouting f0r help from the bottom of a hole we slowly dug! Awareness mitigates great trouble.

That’s our truth today: Be aware of your flesh, as it is attempting to silently build up it’s forces against the Spirit.

Respond:

God help me to be aware of my flesh daily. Prompt me to begin my day with petition, with awareness, with attentiveness. Without You working in my life to make me aware of it I know I will naturally create an affinity to deny Your truths, or at least make it significantly harder to obey. I pray for consistency and commitment to this effort today Lord. Amen.

Relate:

As I have said before, the “relating” portion of this is easy. Share the post, and don’t hesitate to point out these verses to your friends and family. Many Christians experience day to day struggles without realizing that it isn’t even Satan attacking it is simply their flesh which has built up it’s forces and power to conquer the Spirit’s guidance. Illuminate those who are unaware.