Life in the Spirit

Someone has said that life has seven stages: spills, drills, thrills, bills, ills, pills, and wills. We have been told that life is "getting all the gusto" or "living in the fast lane." However, the problem with living life in the fast lane is that you get to the toll booth quicker. Elizabeth O' Conner in Christianity Today points out that "while it is a crucial mistake to assume that we can be on an outward journey without being on an inward one, it is equally disastrous to assume that one can make the journey inward without taking the journey outward."

Often we attempt to make life's journey outwardly without doing so inwardly. Then life seems like a big wagon wheel with many spokes. Often as Christians we feel like we are running around the rim trying to reach everybody. But God says, "Walk in the Spirit..." As one author puts it, "There is a hub in the middle of that wheel and God says we should start in the hub; live in the hub. Then we will be connected with all the spokes, and we won't have to run so fast."

Life in the Spirit is not a life of never-ending, frenzied activity. It is a resting in the power and guidance of the Holy Spirit. It is a condition that Jesus called "makarios." That's the Greek word translated "blessed" in the Beatitudes. It means to have a deep inner settledness that cannot be affected by the events of life. The fruit of the Spirit of Galatians 5 is the evidence of that makarios condition in our lives. That fruit includes love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. This is not a pick and choose list but a description of what our lives should display because we are walking in the Spirit. The Holy Spirit produces the fruit. We are simply called upon to bear it. God gives us the grace of the Spirit's fruit. We are simply to share it with those around us. Let's make it our goal to display to others what God produces.