Check Yourself

There are times when people will provoke us to anger. We want to lash out at them, but something stops us. This is what Paul references in Galatians 5:16, “But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh (NASB).” As long as we walk with the Spirit, the Spirit will help to stop us from carrying our fleshly desires. 

As a believer in Jesus we have the Spirit of God within us. Yet we are still human. As Paul writes in the next verse, the Spirit and our flesh are opposed to one another (5:17). This is the war we sometimes feel and perhaps lose some days when we don’t rely on the Spirit. In our flesh alone, we are prone to do the things Paul lists in 5:19:21.

A life immersed in the Spirit of God should produce the Fruit of the Spirit listed in 5:22:23. When you read that list, aren’t these things we want in ourselves and others? Who doesn’t want “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness.” These traits are authentically found with the self control we obtain through the Spirit of God.

If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit. – Galatians 5:25, NASB