Galatians 5:16-26; Philippians 4:8

The last few days, confined by the weather to home, as afforded the opportunity to watch the winter Olympics. It is always interesting to watch this epic drama played out on the international stage every four years. Athletes prepare most, if not all, of their young lives for their moment in the spotlight. They have trained relentlessly honing their bodies to the best of shape possible with the goal of winning a medal, especially gold. The range of emotions from jubilation to sorrow is evident as hopes and dreams are either realized or dashed. As we watch the images the network broadcasts, along with the back-stories that accompany them, we are vicariously drawn into the emotions they express even though we have never met them.

“Emotions exert an incredibly powerful force on human behavior. Strong emotions can cause you to take actions you might not normally perform, or avoid situations that you generally enjoy.” In psychological terms “emotions are often defined as complex states of feeling that result in physical and psychological changes that influence thought and behavior.” “Emotions are human beings’ warning systems as to what is really going on around them.  Emotions are our most reliable indicators of how things are going on in our lives.  Emotions help keep us on the right track by making sure that we are led by more than the mental/ intellectual faculties of thought, perception, reason, memory.”

Unfiltered, emotions can control our thinking, behavior and actions. While we should never suppress or bury our emotions, we should not allow them to control us either. It is our faith that makes the difference. Our faith filters what we see and hear, and affects how we behave in our daily lives. The challenge, of course, is living by our faith when our emotions scream out another path. That is why we have been given the gift of the Holy Spirit. Jesus told us that when the Holy Spirit came He would lead and guide us into all truth. Obviously then, we cannot live by our faith without living by the Spirit. That means we have to learn how to live the Spirit filled life.

The first order of the spirit filled life is to keep our thoughts under control and our faith active. We can accomplish this by making a determination to stay in the Spirit and refuse to be derailed by allowing our emotions to rule over our lives. I want to suggest four things we need to consciously do in order to insure we are being led by the Spirit and not our emotions.

1.  Assert our spiritual dominion letting our flesh know God is in control (vs. 16-17). Deny the flesh. Say no to the cravings that try to control us.

2.  Know our weaknesses (vs. 19-21). Understand, the devil knows our weaknesses. It is imperative that we know them.

3.  Avoid strife (vs. 24). Walking in the Spirit means walking in harmony with God and others. Guard our hearts and tongues from bickering, bitterness and conflict.

4.  Think about the things God thinks about (Philippians 4:8 -Kingdom thinking).

It is not easy to live a Spirit filled life. There are far too many distractions to believe we can live this kind of life on our own. We are not strong enough or wise enough. We don’t have the necessary strength of character to make the right decisions all the time on our own. The pull of our flesh, that is weak, is often stronger than our spirit-man that is willing. We need more than willingness. We need more than good intentions. We need more than excuses of what we were going to do; “See, what had happened was . . .” We are in a battle for our lives and our eternal souls. The devil is not going to back up or back down. He will not have pity on us but will exploit and amplify every weakness we display.

If we are going to prevail in this fight it will take more than spiritual affirmations. It will take more than speaking in tongues or dancing in the Spirit. It is going to take surrendering our wills to God’s will. It is going to take making some critical decisions. It is going to take displaying some backbone. It is going to take asserting our spiritual dominion, knowing and strengthening our weaknesses, avoiding strife, and thinking about the things God thinks about.

© All Rights Reserved – Dr. James H Logan Jr