Life by the Spirit

Job 31-33
Galatians 5-6
1 Corinthians 1-3

SOAP - Life by the Spirit

Scripture
Galatians 5-6 ... do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather, serve one another in love. The entire law is summed up in a single command: "Love your neighbor as yourself." ... Live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the sinful nature. ... 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. ... But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. ... Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.

Observation
Paul is trying to explain what a life lived for Christ is like.

Application
Unfortunately I definitely see the presence of more than a couple of the "acts of the sinful nature" in my life. The fruit of the Spirit is there too and in much greater amounts than it used to be. But I worry that too much of the good stuff is just in my head, a feeling rather than faith and love put into action. I supposedly feel love toward someone, but is it really love if it doesn't produce action. Can laziness be included in the acts of the sinful nature? Laziness and the ability to ignore the callings placed before us, whether it is the Lord telling us to help someone else, or the Lord telling us to make changes of our own. I definitely include laziness and willful avoidance in my sinful nature. What would my life look like if I had less of the sinful nature, and more of the fruit of the spirit put into action? How do I spend my time now? Mostly on myself? How would my priorities change? How would I spend my time then? All kinds of excuses to keep things just the way they are come to mind. I already feel pretty busy so I'm really reluctant to add more things to take up my time. But I know God will bless my efforts and it wouldn't surprise me at all to feel less busy when I'm spending more time serving the Lord. Of course now my question is, what should I do? And my answer is, I don't know, so I think I'll stick with "nothing". I know, that's not right. The answer is that you really can't go wrong with an attempt to serve others, so pick something, and get to it! Take steps in that direction and the path will become more clear as you go. Or perhaps God will just enjoy watching you randomly wander about trying to do the right thing... he's allowed to have a good laugh right? Anyway, the new Toby Mac song says it well... "If you gotta start somewhere why not here? If you gotta start sometime why not now? If we gotta start somewhere I say here. If we gotta start sometime I say now." :-)

Prayer
Dear Lord. I'm scared to tell you I'm going to put my faith into action, because that means I'll actually have to do it instead of just writing about it and continuing to avoid it. I know that laziness is keeping me here. I don't really feel scared but I suppose some amount of fear is keeping me here too. I know the excuse of not knowing what to do is no good. Dear Lord, I don't really know what to say. I want to trust you and I need your help. Lord I will find some new way to put my faith into action. Thank you Lord, Amen!