Day 239: Spirit Filled Life

1 Corinthians 5:5-8

Then you must throw this man out and hand him over to Satan so that his sinful nature will be destroyed and he himself will be saved on the day the Lord returns. Your boasting about this is terrible. Don’t you realize that this sin is like a little yeast that spreads through the whole batch of dough?  Get rid of the old “yeast” by removing this wicked person from among you. Then you will be like a fresh batch of dough made without yeast, which is what you really are. Christ, our Passover Lamb, has been sacrificed for us. So let us celebrate the festival, not with the old bread of wickedness and evil, but with the new bread of sincerity and truth.

Today I want to talk about the dangers of allowing sin to remain in our lives no matter how small we think it is. I want to talk about how it can spread and eventually lead to our spiritual death. But let’s talk about it by attacking what it is to have a spiritual life. When our spirits are alive in us, we have eternity right there in our hearts. If we want a spirit filled life we must get rid of anything and everything that will taint or put a hole in our spirit. Our sinful nature must be destroyed. We hinted on this a bit bit yesterday, but we cannot live for Christ while also serving the world. We serve one master and He is the living God. God cannot come in contact with sin, that’s why His Son had to first die on our behalf before we could have a personal relationship with Him.

I love the analogy of sin being yeast in a batch of dough, All it takes is a little yeast for the dough to rise. It spreads throughout the whole batch. In the same way that is how sin can easily take over our life if we do not get rid of it. All it takes is something “small”, all it takes is a little thing, that we think we can get away with and eventually it has turned into something that we have lost control over. We all have that one thing that we struggle with the most, and we are constantly praying against our flesh and doing all we can not to fall into the trap. However some of us have been in places where we let some things slide. I’m talking about the things we think are not so bad, or the things we know aren’t as bad as something else. Then we try to justify it by comparing sin. You all know what I’m talking about, in order to get the heat off of ourselves or make an excuse for what we are doing we try to make someone else’s sin look worse than our, so ours doesn’t seem that bad. You ever notice that we explain ourselves the most when we know what we’re doing is wrong. It’s like our spirit having an allergic reaction to the sin we are trying to force onto it.  

This is not how we are supposed to live. We are live in Christ, with Christ all the days of our lives and throughout eternity. How can we do that if we are letting things slide because we think it’s not that bad. God doesn’t overlook sin because we think it’s not that bad. No, that’s not how it works. When we take a step back we’ll see that it is less about, “not sinning” and more about living for Christ. It’s about loving Him with all our heart, soul, and strength. When we love God that way, and we focus on having a real relationship with Him. Not becoming a Christian just to save our souls from eternal damnation. But when we really fall in love with God and love Him more than anything or anyone, our desire for sin fades. We are so caught up in God that all  we want to do is live a life that will draw us closer to Him.

All this to say, life isn’t just about “not sinning”. What kind of life would it be if it were. It’s about living for something and someone far greater than ourselves. Let’s not allow sin to take root in us, but weed it out and allow our spirits to dwell in Christ and the Holy Spirit in us. Sometimes weeding out sin also means removing certain people from our lives as well.

Reflection

1. What are some things in your life that you let slide?
2. Do you live you life for life or for the sake of not going to hell?
3. What do you think is your biggest struggle?

Prayer time

Allow the answers to the above questions guide your prayer today. Talk to God about what it is to live a life free of sin by being devoted and committed to Him at every moment.

I love you and I hope you have an amazing day or evening. Be sure to share this with someone and come back tomorrow for Day 240!

Day 236: God is Building Us

1 Peter 2:2-5

Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation— if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

Today I want to talk about growing in God, and how as we draw closer to Him we grow more in every area of our lives. Our faith grows more, our knowledge of who He is and His word grow. Our passion for Him grows. Every area of our life is enhanced. The more we grow in the Lord the more we become like Christ. We become better people overall. I love the analogy of a baby longing for milk. A baby craves it’s mother’s milk, because it has all the nutrients needed to help the baby grow into a child. The milk of the mother is bringing life to the child. In the same way, when we give our lives to Christ we are like newborn babies, and we crave that spiritual milk from Him so that we may grow in our faith. The scriptures tells us to long for the pure spiritual milk. The milk that causes us to grow up in our salvation. What if that milk is the blood of Jesus, the word of God, the Holy Spirit, everything that points us to a life of salvation and eternity. That’s the secret right there, if we want to grow in our faith, if we want to continue to grow and not stay stagnate, we must long for the word of God, and allow that word to take root in us so that ours lives begin to change to look like Christ’s. We must long to follow the only living God. We must seek His face, and through His word God will build us into the men and women of God He has always planned for us to be. Through our prayer, and longing for Him, He will build us up.

Like a baby it takes time, many times, things don’t happen overnight. We have to go through some things. We have to be cleansed. We have to let go of a few things and people in our lives before we can grow. We have to be rejected like Jesus. But when alls said and done we will  realize what god was doing all along. Sometimes we don’t understand why He’s doing certain things in our lives, we don’t understand why things are going the way they are. We don’t understand what’s going on at that moment in time. But just hold on, keep longing for that pure spiritual milk, keep going and keep growing and when it’s all said and done, we will realize that He was building us. He was shaping us and moulding us. In Isaiah 55:8-9 it says, “For my thoughts are not your thought, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts.” God always knows the plan, even when we don’t understand it. He is constantly building us up, and making us into the vessels that He will use to bring glory to Him and His kingdom. We must learn to accept that sometimes, we aren’t going to get what God is doing until He is done. We won’t have answers until He reveals them to us, But in the meantime, we must continue to trust Him and seek His face. We must continue to seek that pure spiritual milk that He speaks of in order for us to grow. We can grow in the moments of uncertainty as well. It’s in those moments when we learn to trust God and have faith.

All this to say, if we want to grow in Christ, if we want to grow in our faith we must push towards Him and draw near to Him. We must lean on His word and lean towards Him.

Reflection

1. What is something that stood out to you today?
2. Are there times in your life when you don’t understand what God is doing?
3. If those times have passed can you look back and see how He was using your situation then to make you who you are now?

Prayer Time

Allow your answers to the above questions guide your prayer today. Talk to God about spiritual growth and whatever it is on your heart today. Have a conversation with Him.

I love you and I hope you have an amazing day or evening! Be sure to share this with someone and come back tomorrow for Day 237!