“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.” Galatians 5:22-25
“The Holy Spirit illuminates the minds of people, makes us yearn for God, and takes spiritual truth and makes it understandable to us.” Billy Graham
- Call your prayer partner for your 10-minute prayer call. If you are having trouble connecting, keep trying!
- It’s time to meet with your Beloved, your Savior, and the Lover of your soul! Ask Him to speak to you about what it means to keep in step with the Holy Spirit and to help you to do so more and more each day.
- Read Galatians 5:16-26. Write verse 25 in your journal.
Friend, sometimes life on this earth is just plain hard. We live in a broken world, with broken people, and we ourselves, are broken women.
I remember many days when my kids were growing up where I was just plain exhausted from lack of sleep, all of the laundry, sibling fusses, and overly high expectations of myself and others. There were days when I completely lost it: I yelled at the kids and threw temper tantrums, then cried my eyes out to God because I just couldn’t seem to get it together. I felt like a bad mom.
Can you relate, dear sister? Do you struggle with yelling or getting super frustrated with your kids? We all have trying times that test our patience and faith, but the wonderful news is that we don’t have to do anything on our own. Jesus wants us to come to Him for help with anything and everything! Yes, we will always make mistakes because we are still human and have to deal with our own flesh nature that wants to do what it wants to do. But there is hope for us as we learn to walk with Jesus one day at a time, and He is there to help us when we ask.
One of my all-time favorite Scriptures is John 15:5: “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.” What a beautiful Scripture! I remember reading it for the first time and thinking to myself, “What a relief I don’t have to try to do the right things on my own.” The pathway to the life I wanted for myself and my family was simply staying close to Jesus and letting Him lead the way. He is so faithful and speaks to us in so many ways, including through His Word, prayer, other Christians, and the inner voice inside of us. That inner voice is the Holy Spirit who dwells inside of us and gives us the power we need to live the triumphant life God has for us.
So much of the goodness in our lives comes from keeping in step with the Holy Spirit. Trouble comes when we go ahead or lag behind. When we become Christians, God gives us the precious Holy Spirit as a deposit for the life that is to come when we are in fellowship with our blessed Savior in heaven. Earth is the broken place; in heaven, all will be perfect. Here we have sorrow and suffering; there, all will be whole.
Living in the power of the Holy Spirit while we are on this earth is the very best way to live within the confines of the brokenness and beauty. The very presence and filling of the Holy Spirit are what we need to be whole in this world. The Holy Spirit is where we get our strength and our power! Just like we receive the energy for our bodies from the food we eat, we receive the energy for living the victorious Christian life from the Spirit of God! And when we live lives characterized by keeping in step with the Holy Spirit, we will begin to produce fruit.
“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control” (Galatians 5:22-23a).
I think sometimes we don’t live by the Spirit as much because the cares and worries of this world choke the fruit right out of us. We feel disconnected from God. Sometimes life gets hard, but we should be relying on God especially during these times.
God is with us in the hard times just as much as He is in the easy times. He never leaves us. The fruits of the Spirit are a beautiful by-product of living in the power of the Holy Spirit. When we are connected and aware of His presence, He fills us with joy. This is where noticing God’s goodness comes in. When we are thankful, things become easier and more peaceful because we see what we have. The focus becomes on what we have, and not on what we don’t have.
Pray with me today:
“Holy Spirit, please open my eyes to the ways in which you work in my life. Help me to stay in step with You and not lag behind or go ahead. I want to notice Your daily presence in my life and to learn to hear Your voice. Speak to me through Your Word daily, and make me aware of all of the ways You show Your loving kindness to me. Give me a thankful heart. In Jesus’ name, Amen.”
Blessings and Love,
Deb
Questions to Ponder
- How about you? Do you worry about tomorrow or feel deep regret about the past? Are you showing fruits of living by the Spirit?
- Ask God to show you any areas of your life where you are not keeping in step with the Holy Spirit. Ask Him to help you to surrender anything that is holding you back from the life God has for you, and for His help and power to walk with Him each day, one moment at a time.
Faith-Filled Ideas
Easy Ways to Keep in Step With the Spirit:
- Spend time with God. This is how we refuel! When we spend time with God, we get His perspective on our lives and how He wants us to live. Be sure to ask for wisdom for your day!
- Worship! There are countless Scriptures that talk about the benefits of worship. When we worship God, it opens the doors wide to the working of the Holy Spirit. When we worship God, He acts on our behalf and fills us with the peace that comes from knowing He is mightier than our problems and can help us through anything we may go through in this life. For a powerful example of how worship leads to victory in a believer’s life be sure to read the story of Jehosophat in 2 Chronicles 20. It’s a powerful story of what happens when we worship!!
- Ask God to help you see into the hearts of your husband, children, friends, and those you encounter during your day. Pray for God’s perspective on everything and for Him to help you to love others well.
- Give God control of your day, your schedule, and your friendships. Commit your cell phone and front door to God each day, and ask Him to control who calls, texts, or stops over, your schedule, and what you do with your time. When we trust God with these areas of our lives, it makes it harder to feel lonely and isolated. If God wants you to receive a phone call or go to lunch, He will schedule it for you!
- Commit your finances to God. Ask Him to help you to be wise and frugal with His money. Pray for a generous heart that loves to bless others.
- Notice God! Purposely build checkpoints into your day to stop and remember the goodness of God. Did a friend call to say you’ve been on her mind? How about the hug from your toddler when he said he loves his mommy? What about finding the coupon on the floor at Wal-Mart that was exactly what you needed or the beautiful moment you and your husband spent gazing at the sunset before dinner? All of these are God’s little ways to show you He loves you! Get into the habit of stopping and telling God that you noticed His great love for you today. When we are thankful and notice even the smallest details of God’s love and care, it makes us all so much happier and fills us with joy!
I remember going into my daughter's room night after night and kneeling beside her bed and crying my heart out to God because I didn’t know how to be a Christian mom; I felt like I had no idea what I was doing. You know what? God is so faithful! He answered me and simply said, “Spend time with me, Deb.” And so I did. I began arising 15-30 minutes earlier each day so I could read my Bible and pray, and plan out my day with my family.
If there was one thing I would love to share with you is that God is personal and loves you as you are. You don’t have to be perfect to be loved by our amazing God! Come as you are! His loving presence can be practically known and experienced. He is not a God who is far away, He is near and easily found. He longs for you to come to Him!
Randy and I have been married for 33 years and we have two grown children, Christie, and Jack, and one answer to prayer son-in-law named Alex. And now I get to be a Gigi to my sweet little grandbabies, Aspen and Skylar, and Piper. Yay!
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