Keeping in Step

DEVOTION

THE LETTER TO THE GALATIANS

KEEPING IN STEP

Gal 5:22-26

22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. 24 Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires. 25 Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. 26 Let us not become conceited, as provoking and envying each other.

NIV

One of the most famous portions of scripture has stepped onto our path. After dealing with the works of the sinful nature and understanding we have this struggle within us in that we desire to walk by the Spirit, to live under the influence of the Spirit and have him manifest his fruit in our lives, but still, the sinful nature wants its way. What we also have to understand is these fruit, or as some would say the fruit, are the Spirits. We cannot manifest these in our flesh. Our flesh is the sinful nature and it cannot produce love nor any of the other traits of the Spirit. He must do the work within us and manifest those qualities. True, we are supposed to turn our back in the old sinful nature and follow or walk or be led by the Spirit. As we seek to follow him, yielding ourselves to his leading, he then begins to produce his fruit in our lives. Our desire is to crucify that sinful nature, put it to death, bury it and hopefully never resurrect it whenever we feel like it. Once that is all we knew, our sinful nature and we lived for our own passions, but that is no longer the case. Our desire is to live by the Spirit now. Our desire is the keep in step with the Spirit. Just as in the military, the commanding officers call out the cadence and all march to his voice, keeping in step with his calling, “your left, your left, your right, left-right, column right march, left flank march, etc. Each call the soldiers move altogether. This is how the Spirit leads us, calling out the cadence for our life. As we follow his voice we move in step with him. The difference between Christians and the soldier is that the Spirit then produces himself within us. His fruit becomes a part of us. It might be easy for us to think we are producing this fruit, that we have the ability to express all those qualities, but then we would be conceited and we might have a tendency to say, “Look at me, how much fruit I have developed” “See how kind I am” “ I really have goodness and I am gentle”. Then we would be that person who provokes others to envy. No, we have to know it is not us, but the Spirit who produces His fruit in us. We simply have to allow him to do his work, yield to him, as we continue to crucify our old sinful nature. That may be easier said than done, but when it raises its ugly head, we say; No get behind me, we will not listen to you, I do not hear you, we are walking with the Spirit. It is the Spirit we are keeping in step with.