“It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.” (Gal 5:1)
Galatians chapter 5 is a piece of scripture that God continually has brought me back to over the years and it has repeatedly served as a canon to my life – a measuring stick to the way that I am living on a daily basis. God has set me free, and it is my responsibility to stay free.
In my quiet times with God over the last couple of weeks, He has reminded me over and over again that I have the authority to bring my flesh into alignment with my spirit, and that I have the responsibility to keep my spirit in step with His.
This is something He needs to remind me of because my emotions have been a little fraught lately. What normally I would meet with patience, I meet with frustration or anger. What normally I would meet with kindness, I have met with unkindness – at the very least, in myself. The outside might appear fairly normal, but God is in the business of dealing to the inside stuff… and the inside stuff hasn’t been very sweet.
“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. The law is not against such things. 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 keep in step with the Spirit.”
(Gal 5:22-23,25)
God gives us a guide in black and white, and when something in us doesn’t measure up with these things, we have a responsibility to come before the Father and to align our hearts again with His Truth.
God has set me free, and it is my responsibility to stay free.
My prayer is that we would desire for the fruit of His Spirit, to be the fruit of our own. And that our world (currently our bubbles) would taste the sweetness of God in all of our interactions.
Aroha Nui,
Ash