Romans 8:1-8 (NKJV)
Free from Indwelling Sin
8 There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. 2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death. 3 For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh, 4 that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. 5 For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. 6 For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. 7 Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be. 8 So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
Habit as a noun is defined as a settled or regular tendency or practice, especially one that is hard to give up. There’s so many habits that we are practicing each day, like looking left and right before crossing the street. But we will tackle only the top of the very essential habits to satisfy our spirit that is being neglected because what we only do are the things that satisfy our flesh.
Although flesh is contrary to the spirit, (Galatians 5:17) GOD design their cravings to be in simile. GOD made it so, so we can easily understand what we need to do to satisfy the spirit which we often taken for granted. And we should take it our priority the very needs of our spirit, to become a healthy, joyful, and alive spirit according to GOD’s purpose. Otherwise, we will be a living dead in the sight of GOD.
The top on the habit lists is feeding our body, our flesh. We eat at least three times a day, breakfast, lunch, and dinner, not only that, aside from snacks, we crave to eat buffet and specialties, that we put extra effort finding a way to go to our favorite restaurants, inserting it to our busy schedule just for that; to satisfy our flesh. That ensued to satisfaction with no guilt, if we fed our body with the right and nutritious food for our body. As an outcome, we will have healthy, active, alive body that can handle all physical challenges that comes our way.
That is the same thing with our spirit. Matthew 4:4 says, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God” This verse says we cannot live on just food for our body—we need food for our spirit, too. But how do we feed our spirit?
If we only take special breakfast or lunch or dinner each weekend for our spirit that is by going to church on Sunday to feed our spirit, the Bible says this isn’t enough to sustain our spirit. Joshua 1:8 says, “This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.”
That one time in a week meal would not sustain us to face and get through the trials Jesus told us that would come our way. We need daily regular healthy hot meals to stand on top of every trial that we are going to face. No wonder why there’s many people who have healthy bodies but pessimistic in dealing with their life situation that lead to sinning because their spirits are weak. Feeding our spirit by the Word on daily basis is important, (or the only one important as Jesus mentioned in Luke 10:42, “But one thing is needed, and Mary has chosen that good part, which will not be taken away from her.”) This is when Mary, the sister of Martha chose to listen to Jesus instead of being busy with other things of this life.
Instead of trying to make the Word fit into our busy life, we must arrange our schedules to have regular feeding to our spirit by listening or reading the Word of GOD. This should be the habit that our spirit need,—not something we do in our spare time. This is how we please GOD.
My family habit in the morning is to listen to the daily gospel reading from http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings-audio.cfm as we eat our breakfast. As a mom, I’ll see to it that we a had a bounty breakfast for our body, while my husband is the one taking care of the bounty breakfast for our spirit. The result is optimism and counting the blessings we have each day because of our well fed spirits.
The next to this number one habit are too many in simile to what we are already have been doing to our body. We clothe our body with clean and presentable clothing. Same with our spirit. We should clothe it with the righteousness that comes from GOD. As Isaiah 61:10 says, “I will greatly rejoice in the LORD, my soul shall be joyful in my God; for he hath clothed me with the garments of salvation, he hath covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decketh himself with ornaments, and as a bride adorneth herself with her jewels.”
Praying or talking to GOD with your spirit is another must routine. It is like equipping your body with regular exercise to have strength to defeat enemies including sickness. As Jesus said in Matthew 26:41, “Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.”
As we mature spiritually, the lists of habits continue as we give importance to our spirit satisfaction in relation with Jesus Christ Spirit according to the will of GOD. But to be wise is to make our Spiritual habits over our carnal habits as being told in our verse today, “For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.” So, let’s start with the top habit of eating spiritual food and redirect ourselves to cling to the habits that will please GOD. AMEN
ความคิดเห็น