Several years ago, I had a very dangerous car accident. Driving north on MacArthur Road, I was approaching the intersection at the bridge over Memorial Road. As my oldest daughter Lauren applied her makeup, I was on the phone making appointments on our way to preschool with Jaxon. As we approached the stop light, I happened to be rescheduling a nail appointment and was intently thinking through my schedule for the next week. (Just fyi, that kind of thinking is a no-no while driving. It requires taking your mind off of what you are supposed to be focusing on!)
As my mind was scanning my mental calendar, I was looking straight ahead at the light. Green….. green…… green….. yellow….. yellow….. red….. red…… RED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Unable to process the changing light, I proceeded to blaze through the intersection at 50 miles per hour! I had the feeling something was wrong as I approached the light but went right on through it. I never yielded to the light!
This wreck, six years ago, was brought to my mind as I have recently studied how to walk by the Spirit. Paul says that if we walk by the Spirit, then we won’t walk in the flesh.
"Walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh. For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh;
for these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the Law."
(Galations 5:16-18)
Daily we have choices to make. To follow our flesh or to follow the Spirit, which lives inside us. What I realized is that before we make that choice, we have the opportunity to YIELD. Think about the yield light when driving. The green light can last a long time. The red light too can be red for quite a while. But the yellow light, the yield, is rather short lived. The yellow light pops up and you have just a few seconds to decide….should I stop or will I go?
We too have to yield to the Spirit. In each day, we have opportunities and situations that arise where we have a choice to respond or react led by the Spirit or led by the desires of the flesh. And just like the traffic light, often you have to decide quickly. How will you respond?
Paul explicitly describes the difference between the deeds and actions of the flesh vs. the Spirit. "The deeds (behavior) of the flesh are evident which are: immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, factions, envying, drunkenness, carousing and things like these." Galations 5:19-21
He then continues by describing the fruits of the Spirit in us as "…love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control."
No one says it better than Paul. "Therefore, don’t let sin reign in your mortal bodies to make you yield to its cravings and be subject to its lusts and evil passions. Do not continue offering or yielding your bodily members to sin as instruments of wickedness. But offer and yield yourselves to God as though you have been raised from the dead to life and your bodily members to God, presenting them as implements of righteousness." Rom.6:12,13
As you seek to let Christ live His life through you, YIELD yourself to the Spirit and be led by the Spirit!
"If we live by the spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit."
Learning to yield,
Cheri
