Daily Devotional for Friday October 29, 2004

Walking in the Spirit, Not the Flesh

(Romans 8:1, 5, 9, 13; Galatians 5:16-18, 2:20)

Two of the great historical events in 1918 were the sinking of the Titanic and the Boston Red Sox winning baseball's World Series. After 86 years, the Red Sox have once again won the World Series, sweeping the St. Louis Cardinals 4 games to none. To even get to the World Series, Boston had to do something no team in the history of baseball had ever done, come back from an 0-3 deficit in a best of 7 series to win the American League Championship over their arch rival New York Yankees.

After winning the 6th game of that historic series with the Yankess, Boston pitcher Curt Schilling who had been playing with an injured ankle gave an incredible testimony of Christ's strength. "Seven years ago I became a Christian, and tonight God did something amazing for me. I tried to be as tough as I could, and do it my way, Game 1, and I think we all saw how that turned out (Schilling was hit hard and lost the game). I knew that I wasn't going to be able to do this alone. And I prayed as hard as I could. I didn't pray to get a win or to make great pitches. I just prayed for the strength to go out there tonight and compete, and He gave me that. I can't explain to you what a feeling it was to be out there and to feel what I felt." What Curt was talking about was operating in God's strength, not his own. He was talking about what the Bible calls walking in the Sprit, not the flesh.

I am always amazed to find out who some of the 2 million people who subscribe to the Daily Devotional are. About a year ago I responded to an email from one subscriber who is a caddy on the PGA Tour. The PGA is in the Tampa area this weekend and I had a chance to spend some time the last few nights with Steve and several other caddies along with some of the players who are Christians and love the Lord. God has His people everywhere, and Jesus is WELL represented in professional golf. As we were talking about different issues the other night, one of the men brought up Schilling's testimony and asked me what it really meant to allow God to have complete control over our life. He wanted to know how we do that in our day to day life.

I shared with them that this is exactly what Paul was talking about in Galatians 2 when He spoke of dying to self daily. It is the conscious act of dying to self and allowing the power of the Holy Spirit that indwells every Believer to have control over you. It is NOT a natural act and is something you must consciously do every day. We have to practice every day following the Lord until it becomes part of our daily life and who we are. The fact is, we practice sin until it becomes natural. Nobody wakes up one morning and decides to be an alcoholic, or drug addict, or engage in sex outside of marriage. We make the choice to commit sin and we "practice" sinning over and over until it becomes almost instinctive and part of our life.

Walking in the Spirit, allowing God to have control over our life at all times is also something we have to practice. We have to wake up each morning and consciously yield our lives to Christ. We have to pray and read the Word, spend time each day building up our relationship with the Lord. Over time, it starts to become instinctive, natural to walk in the Sprit instead of in the flesh. We become used to allowing God to guide our choices throughout the day. *You see my friend, when it is us, it doesn't work. When it is God, it works!!!

I love you and care about you so much. I am praying for you today to make that conscious choice each day to follow Paul's admonition to walk after the Spirit and not the flesh. It is amazing how incredibly easy life can become when we are living each day in HIS strength and not our own. When we allow the Holy Sprit to guide us through the day, there is a peace and a calm regardless whatever problems may arise. When God is in control, at the end of the day you aren't physically drained like you have been up for 72 hours without any sleep. Again, when God is in control of our life, we are operating in His strength, not ours. May you walk each day not in the flesh, but IN THE SPIRIT!

"I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me." Galatians 2:20 (NIV)