Feed the Spirit of Life
I was inspired today by these two verses:
"He who sins is of the devil...for this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil." = 1 John 3:8
"Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. Resist him..." = 1 Peter 5:8-9
In both of these passages we sense that we have a choice to make. We can choose the way of the devil but that does not lead us into the benefits of a life in the Spirit. In fact, it takes us in the entirely wrong direction. But praise God, because of Jesus the work of life and redemption are within us, beseeching us to choose its path of victory, and not the other path of defeat. As we choose life daily, it gives God the room in our lives to work on our behalf. It's like eating right. When we eat right and exercise our beautiful bodies have the resources to continue to function at the highest levels. But when we feed it garbage, when we pollute it, when we don't exercise our muscles, as much as it wants to it can't function as well on our behalf. It can't give back to us because we haven't given much to it. The Spirit of life within us is similar. It wants to act positively on our behalf (it is desperate to!). But if we act out as the devil urges us to, what resource are we giving it to do its marvelous work??
Some people may not want the choice. They think "why can't God just give us all the best?" I can understand that but a choice is actually the greatest gift (just one step after the all encompassing love of Christ himself, that is still there, ready to receive us and cleanse us, regardless of the choices we make). If we were robots, would we really know, could we really taste, goodness? If you could flip a switch so that your spouse would love you and do what you say, is that real love? We have a choice so that we may truly feel and appreciate the blessings of God. It's what we do with that choice that makes all the difference. And all of our humanly choices affect each other, for better or for worse, the bad as well as the good. Too many of our bad choices have caused not only personal suffering, but the suffering of those around us.
Let's today choose to feed the Spirit of Life and give God the glory and honor due Him through our prayer life and our actions.
"He who sins is of the devil...for this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil." = 1 John 3:8
"Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. Resist him..." = 1 Peter 5:8-9
In both of these passages we sense that we have a choice to make. We can choose the way of the devil but that does not lead us into the benefits of a life in the Spirit. In fact, it takes us in the entirely wrong direction. But praise God, because of Jesus the work of life and redemption are within us, beseeching us to choose its path of victory, and not the other path of defeat. As we choose life daily, it gives God the room in our lives to work on our behalf. It's like eating right. When we eat right and exercise our beautiful bodies have the resources to continue to function at the highest levels. But when we feed it garbage, when we pollute it, when we don't exercise our muscles, as much as it wants to it can't function as well on our behalf. It can't give back to us because we haven't given much to it. The Spirit of life within us is similar. It wants to act positively on our behalf (it is desperate to!). But if we act out as the devil urges us to, what resource are we giving it to do its marvelous work??
Some people may not want the choice. They think "why can't God just give us all the best?" I can understand that but a choice is actually the greatest gift (just one step after the all encompassing love of Christ himself, that is still there, ready to receive us and cleanse us, regardless of the choices we make). If we were robots, would we really know, could we really taste, goodness? If you could flip a switch so that your spouse would love you and do what you say, is that real love? We have a choice so that we may truly feel and appreciate the blessings of God. It's what we do with that choice that makes all the difference. And all of our humanly choices affect each other, for better or for worse, the bad as well as the good. Too many of our bad choices have caused not only personal suffering, but the suffering of those around us.
Let's today choose to feed the Spirit of Life and give God the glory and honor due Him through our prayer life and our actions.
posted by Kelley Nicole @ 2:25 PM
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