Receiving from God
In his 1937 book Think and Grow Rich, author Napoleon Hill said, “Whatever your mind can conceive and believe, it can achieve.” Hill’s quote epitomizes the American Dream: If you work hard, you can achieve your wildest dreams.
Hard work may lead to earthly benefits; many passages of Scripture—especially in Proverbs—link those things. But as I grow older, I also see a real danger in following Hill’s ideas: My grasping attempts to achieve my dreams can be a self-focused attempt to live independently from God.
In Galatians 5, Paul contrasts two ways of life: “Walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh” (v. 16). Eugene Petersen paraphrases it this way: “Live freely, animated and motivated by God's Spirit. Then you won't feed the compulsions of selfishness” (The Message). A few verses later, Paul describes what a flourishing life in Christ looks like: “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control” (vv. 22-23).
Many voices in this world compel us to grasp our desires with both hands. The life we long for, though, is not one we earn but one we receive as we yield to the Holy Spirit—freely walking with Him—rather than striving desperately to grasp blessing on our own terms.
By: Adam R. Holz - Our Daily Bread Ministries
Galatians 5:13-25
Life bythe Spirit
13 You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love. 14 For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” 15 If you bite and devour each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other.
16 So Isay, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. 17 For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you want. 18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.
19 The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; 20 idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions 21 and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. 24 Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 25 Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.
