DO YOU FEEL STRONG AND CONFIDENT OR WEAK AND VULNERABLE?

BIBLE PASSAGE:
Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.
(Galatians 5:25)

MEDITATION:
Remember when you were a little child and you went somewhere
with one of your parents? You may have gone shopping with your
mother, or walking through the woods with your dad. At any rate,
your legs were much shorter than theirs and at times you had to
yell,
    “Mom (or dad), wait on me, I can’t keep up!”

Later as you were older, you may have been running with some
of your friends but they were faster and you just couldn’t keep
up. Or maybe you were riding your bike with friends and when
they started going faster, you began to lag behind. On the other
hand, you may have been faster than your friends, and some of
them were asking you to slow down so they could keep up. Life
can be like that, can’t it? Some are slower than others and have
a struggle to keeping up in certain areas.

It is interesting how things can change when a group of people
are ‘in step’ with each other. If you were in the military (or in
R.O.T.C. in college), you had an opportunity to see saw what it
is like when everyone is moving at the same pace. You learned
how to march to a cadence designed to keep everyone moving
at the same rate of speed.

There was a sense of unity between you and the rest of your platoon.
You started to sense a feeling of strength and power as the right foot
of everyone in the group hit the ground at the same time. All of you
and your comrades were ‘in step’ with each other, and it gave you a
collective sense of power.

As believers, we need to ‘keep up’ and stay ‘in step’ with the Holy Spirit.
When Jesus was resurrected, He promised that those who chose to follow
Him would receive the Holy Spirit along with their salvation. The Spirit
is to be the guiding light in our lives, so it is important for each every
believer to understand His attributes and characteristics (which are the
same as those of Jesus).

We don’t want to be guilty of lagging behind, and failing to include
those same identifying traits in our own lives. We should be listening
to His cadence, and trying to match the things He desires for us. And,
when we do, we will discover we have a new strength and power to help
us resist temptations, and also to serve the Lord using the spiritual gift
He gave us when we received salvation.

When we are not in step with the Spirit, we can feel weak, vulnerable,
and incapable of fulfilling the work God expects of us. However, when
we are in step with the Spirit, we won’t have those feelings of defeat that
cause us to retreat from the mission God has given us. Instead, we will be
marching with confidence toward our goal of spending eternity with God,
Jesus, and the Holy Spirit.

ACTION:
Are you ‘keeping up’ with the Holy Spirit? Are you ‘in step’ with Him?
Are you striving to develop the same qualities and characteristics in
your life, that you see in Jesus? Do you know specifically where God
has called you to serve Him? Have you asked Him? Do you know the
spiritual gift He has given you? Have you asked Him?

Are you actively using your spiritual gift? Do you feel strong
and confident that you can complete what God wants you to
do so that you will hear Him say to you,
    “Well done, good and faithful servant!”

Or, have you retreated from the mission God has given you? Satan
wants us to be ineffective in serving the Lord, so he tries to convince
us that God ‘saves us to sit’. But that’s not what God does! When He
saves us, He equips us to be enlisted in His service, and become one
of His disciples. We are His witnesses, which means we are actively
participating in God’s mission to reach lost souls.
    The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some
    understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you,
    not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come
    to repentance.
    (2 Peter 3:9)

Pray,
“Heavenly Father, thank You for the gift of the Holy Spirit.
Help me to realize how important it is for me to be ‘in step’
with Him. Teach me to develop His qualities in my own life.
Show me how to change my attitudes, goals, focus and
overall personality so that I will be more like Jesus. Help
me to know the spiritual gift You have given me, and show
me where and how to use it in fulfilling Your desire for me.”

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