Psalm 101, Jeremiah 18:1-11, Romans 8:1-11, John 6:27-40
I read the passage about the Fruits of the Spirit (Galatians 5:16-26) for the first time a couple weeks ago, and I came to the part where it said, "But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under law" (v. 18) I am pretty embarrassed to say that my first response to this was to get offended and all up in arms about the fact that I thought no one was ever exempt from the law! I asked myself this question and continued, still offended.
"The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentlesness, and self-control. Against such things, there is no law." (vv. 22-23)
Insert Aha! Moment here. Why was I so quick to be offended by this?? Probably because I sometimes completely fail to display this type of spirit. That day had been a day full of angry outbursts brought on by my refusal to be patient with anyone around me. I was wanting and needing (so I thought) for every single person to drop everything they had planned and be on my time! I get this way very often, and didn't appreciate being called out at that time. This feeling couldn't be further from what the Scripture was actually trying to tell me. It's not saying that just anyone is exempt from the law but those who have, through "Christ Jesus, crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires" (v. 24). If you are dead to the sinful nature, then these fruits of the Spirit of yours, thus there is no need for the law to apply. You are the living law. The passage in Romans 8 reminded me of this today, and it provided even more clarity...
"Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in sinful man, in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit.
Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace; the sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God's law, nor can it do so. Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God.
You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Apirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ. But if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, yet your spirit is alive because of righteousness. And if the Apirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you." (Romans 8:1-11)
....Now I get it.
On to the story of the Potter, because this is definitely one of my new favorites! God is the ultimate Potter. I used to be in a ceramics class, and the whole reason I signed up for it was of course, because I thought it would be an extremely easy A, especially since I was taking it in high school! Quite the contrary. The first time I used the pottery wheel, as you can probably guess, wet, muddy clay went everywhere and I was so upset. But, my teacher told me to calm down and to "guide the clay." So, I tried again, and the second time, to my surprise, I had quickly formed what looked like it would be a very nice vase. I already had plans for what it would look like painted, and what kind of flower my mother would adorn it with when I gave it to her. All of a sudden, just as quickly as it had sprung up, becoming easier to shape and define, it collapsed in my hands. I completely gave up, and didn't return to that wheel until the end of the semester. How similar am I to my once perfect vase! Yet, God NEVER gives up. He doesn't leave me sitting there all mishapen and muddy. He continues at every moment, to shape and care for me, even when I crumble, no, especially, when I crumble.
"But the pot he was shaping from the clay was marred in his hands, so the potter formed it into another pot, shaping it as seemed best to him." (Jeremiah 18:4)
Marred- to detract from the perfection or wholeness of (Merriam-Webster Dict.)
EVENING PRAYER-- Lord, make an instrument of Thy peace; wehre there is hatred, let me sow love . . . O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console, to be understood, as to understand, to be loved, as to love. AMEN!
No comments:
Post a Comment