The Fight of Your Life

Have you ever felt like you do the very opposite of the thing you want to do most? Kinda like George Kastanza in "Seinfeld" when he did the opposite of what his natural instincts were, and life went great for him! But for us in the real world, things usually don't go so well. For example, my heart's desire is to be patient with my kids. But all it takes is for my 1 year old to climb up and stand on the coffee table (for the 6th time) and patience is no where to be found in me.

Paul says this about himself in Romans 7:15-19. In one of the most honest sections of scripture, Paul describes that he does the very thing that he hates. Now if this is true of the author of about half of our New Testament scripture and arguable the most influential person in history aside from Jesus Himself, what does it say about us?

Paul really unpacks this in Galatians 5:16-25. Right off the bat, he says that there's a war going on inside of us...the "over-desires" of our flesh versus the "over-desires" of the Spirit. The parts of us that really love our sin slug it out against the parts of us that really love Jesus. And when we "lead" ourselves, so to speak, what we find in ourselves and coming out of ourselves is the terrible list in verses 19-21. But when we surrender to the leading of the Spirit inside of us, the unified, godly character of the fruit of the Spirit in verses 22-23 grows.

So how do you fight this battle? What do you practically need to do to defeat the over-desires of the flesh? Paul gives us 2 "training" tips in verses 24-25.

First, according to verse 24, we need to constantly remind ourselves of the gospel. We need to remember that Jesus has already won this war, and that the power of sin & the flesh was crucified on the cross! We then live daily in the power by daily living in the rhythm of confessing our sin and repenting of our sin and claiming the gospel promise of what Jesus has done for us. The over-desires of the Spirit are no match for the flesh!

Second, according to verse 25, we need to practically order our lives by the Spirit. This is the idea of "walking" - and looking back at Galatians 2:14, we get a clear picture that for our steps to be in line, we need to have a plan. There are 2 biggest parts of this plan: the rhythm of spiritual disciplines and gospel community. Spiritual disciplines are daily rhythms that we build into our lives to help us intentionally connect with God. These include things like scripture meditation, prayer, Sabbath, serving, giving, etc. Gospel community means that we purposefully open ourselves up to other Christ-followers and be transparent and honest with our struggles so we can receive love, support, encouragement, accountability, confrontation, and prayer.

This fight is gruelling. It is the biggest fight of your life. But take heart! The victory is secured because of Jesus. And he continues to fight with us and for each and every day.