Description
Galatians 5:24 – a simple message, but how easy is it to follow?
Galatians 5:24
And those who belong to Christ Jesus ha… (visit YouTube for more)
Transcript
Oh, goodness. I’m not even sure if I dare meditate on this one today. Galatians 5, verse 24. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.
Do I belong to Christ? I think I do. But have I crucified the flesh with its passions and desires? That’s really hard, isn’t it?
How do I put my flesh to death so that those sinful desires no longer dominate? How do I crucify this flesh? Do you know?
I think this is a constant battle as a Christian. This is one of the reasons why it’s both easy and difficult to be a Christian. It’s easy because we just accept Christ and he saves us completely. But then it’s difficult because we have this mortification of the flesh, this putting to death, all the things that are enemies of God, that rail against what God wants for us.
But we don’t need to beat ourselves up for too long because Jesus didn’t leave us empty handed. When he went up to heaven, he sent the Holy Spirit for us, not only to comfort us, but to teach us and to guide us in all truth and to bring back to our memory the things that he’s taught us; to grow in us the fruit, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control.
Are we crucifying the flesh? If we feel that the answer to that question is "not enough", then all we need do is ask the Holy Spirit for His help, and He will, willingly.
Lord God, we do wish to be obedient children, but You know that we in our flesh are weak. Thank You for giving us Your Holy Spirit to provide us that strength and that growth of character, that we need in order to put to death the flesh once and for all.
Amen.
