So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you want. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.
The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.
My thoughts -
I think, by and large, we know how we should be. We know right from wrong. We know good from bad. We know what we ought to do and what we ought not do. But in the heat of the moment a lot of times, where good should come out instead bad does.
So I wonder, are we out of practice? I coach youth baseball. We always tell the kids that you play how you practice. There are some bad habits that develop sometimes, especially with a lack of practice, and those bad habits come out on the field during games. Kids will sit back on their heel to field ground balls and get eaten up by them. Kids will drop their arms and throw across their bodies and their throws will sail off and they'll make errors. Practice makes fundamentals habitual so you don't have to think about mechanics during the games.
If you look at the list of acts of sinful nature and acts of the Spirit that Paul has provided here I don't think you'll see any stunning revelations here. Maybe it's just me, but there's nothing on either list that is a total shock. And yet, when I have the opportunity to live and act one way versus the other all too often I'm stuck in my sinful nature. This is especially true if things are not going well for me at the time. They say adversity shows true character. If that is the case then, sadly, my true character is not what it should be.
So how do we practice living love? How do we practice living joy, peace, and patience? How do we practice living kindness, goodness, and faithfulness? How do we practice living gentleness and self control?
We need to be prayerful about these things. And we need to be intentional about them. Paul calls these things "fruit of the Spirit". Do we believe that the Holy Spirit can not provide a way for us to live them? We need to ask. We need to pray. And we need to intentionally practice them.
If we prayerfully and intentionally live these fruits of the Spirit when things are going well then in times of trouble we have developed good habits to act out of. If we do not then we have nothing to fall back on but our own sinful nature.
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