Verse of the Day
“If you live to satisfy your sinful self, the harvest you will get from that will be eternal death. But if you live to please the Spirit, your harvest from the Spirit will be eternal life.” Galatians 6:8 ERV
Lesson of the Day
We have the benefit of having the Holy Spirit living within us. The Holy Spirit will guide us as we activate Him. Remember, we have a choice. God gives us free will. Even with the Holy Spirit living within us, He is still gracious enough to let us choose our own way. I must admit that I sometimes wish that He would just lead me, but in reality if He did that, I would probably complain and you would too. Therefore, every day and every moment we get to choose if we will allow the Holy Spirit or the flesh to guide us. The choice is clear. I must warn you that there is no in between with God. It is either you do or you don’t and He makes it very clear the consequences of either whether good or bad. The consequence for choosing to allow the flesh to guide you is eternal death and the consequence for allowing the Holy Spirit to guide you is eternal life. It’s as simple as that. Of course, if we accepted Jesus Christ to be our Lord and Savior then we clearly want eternal life. Well, we can’t just say it, we must live it by choosing each day who we will serve. Joshua 24:15.
Encouragement
This may sound scary to you if you are a new Christian. You might be saying what if one day or one moment I choose to be led by the flesh, would I end up eternally dead? The answer to that is no. You are saved and you have a lifetime to get it right. You will spend the rest of your life trying to follow the Holy Spirit by denying your flesh what it wants. This doesn’t give you the right to sin carelessly. God is no fool. He knows who His children are. His children will strive to do what’s right and feel sorrowful when they mess up. That’s where the fruit of the Spirit comes in. Just like you know a tree from its fruit, we are known from our fruits. Do we have any of the fruits of the Spirit? If not, then we are not God’s children. If we were then the fruit would be evident. Rest in knowing that your tree will be full of the fruit of the Holy Spirit eventually.
Prayer
Dear Heavenly Father, You are a stern God, but You are a fair God. Your love for us is true. You aren’t trying to trick us or give us an impossible task. You made an eternal life easy to access. You gave it to us for free and You even gave us assistance. You are truly the best and we are so grateful that You chose us to be with You forever. Our God, our father, our Savior, our comforter, our healer, our protector, our friend, our provider, and our strength You are to us. Thank You. You didn’t have to and You had no reason to except for Your unconditional love. Help us understand how to activate the Holy Spirit and give us the strength to deny the flesh. Lord, when we make a mistake or willingly let the flesh influence us, forgive us and point us back to You. Thank You for that opportunity to come back. In Jesus Christ name I pray, amen.