Being of the Spirit

 Some people really have limited to no choices in life.  A child living in China forced to work in a sweatshop making a few dollars a day cannot do much to change his situation.  A poor person in India whose family is duty-bound to live out the lot given to them until they are reincarnated has few options for self-improvement.  A teenager in inner-city Waco whose mother is addicted to drugs and whose father is in prison can feel helpless in regards to improving her home life or gaining family support. 

Most of the people that step foot into church have many more choices than those that wind up in these situations.  Yet, in spite of having some money, being affluent, and coming from a somewhat decent family, you still hear people mutter the phrase “I can’t help it.”  Someone might ask me, “Matt, why are you overweight?”  I’m tempted to say: “well, I come from a big family.  All my relatives are big, it is just in my genes.  I CAN’T HELP IT.”  But that is not accurate.  I CAN help it.  It just might be more difficult for me than someone else.

One of the reasons I am overweight is because of the ridiculous number of choices I have when it comes time to eat.  Most of us are surrounded by choices of all kinds, but can still feel like “we can’t help it.”  I recently had a conversation with a father in our church who told me he and his wife made the conscious decision to limit extracurricular activities so that their family would not be overwhelmed.  I applaud him for teaching his children to choose what is important to them, and for not allowing his family to be tossed about by every activity that comes their way.  You cannot choose your context, your family, or even your genetic tendencies.  But most of us DO have the ability to choose what will be important to us.

The frustrating thing with looking at life this way is that everyone has a different opinion about what is important.  That is fine when it comes to choosing what college to attend, what books to read, or what hobbies to pursue.  What about when it comes to choosing to live a life that is pleasing to God?  If you do not think God cares about the way you live or how you serve him, I suppose this is a non-issue for you.  For many people, this is the case.  Increasingly, people are becoming less concerned with God and religion as a whole.  The fastest growing religious affiliations are those that claim no affiliation with any kind of religion.  Why?  Because of all the choices. 

They want to know how they can be sure that the Christian God is the right one, and why choosing to live for him is better than another.  So, as a result, they choose NOT to choose.  Thankfully, the Christian answer to choosing to live for God is not based merely on how well we can argue or reason, but on the way God’s Spirit can HELP you choose.

If you are of the Spirit, you are free to make choices.  When Paul writes to the Galatians about being free from the law, he also tells them: “do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh (v. 13).”  Just because the Galatians were free from observing the Jewish law, did does not mean they were free to do whatever they wanted.  They were given this freedom to help them become closer to God, not to do things that displeased him.  That is why he Spirit plays such an important role.  It is only through the Spirit that we are able to make the choices that matter most.

How do we know which one is God’s Spirit and which one is our flesh?  Many times, the one that we find most difficult, the one that part of us would really prefer not to choose, is what the Spirit wants.  You cannot change the way you feel about that, but by the grace of God, you ARE free to choose it.