Devotion:
Read Galatians 5:16-26.
Yes, it is the same passage we read last Saturday. You are invited to read it again (maybe in another translation) in light of our focus for this week. As I often do, I checked out how Eugene Peterson translated these verses in The Message. And wow, he puts them in some great everyday language! Here is verses 17-18:
“For there is a root of sinful self-interest in us that is at odds with a free spirit, just as the free spirit is incompatible with selfishness. These two ways of life are antithetical, so that you cannot live at times one way and at times another way according to how you feel on any given day. Why don’t you choose to be led by the Spirit and so escape the erratic compulsions of a law-dominated existence?”
I invite you to take a look at how he describes the “acts of the flesh” and the “fruit of the Spirit” (NIV phrases). They are great images of what these “acts” and “fruit” look like in everyday life, both in our individual life and in our life with others.
Finally, this is his offering of verse 25: “Since this is the kind of life we have chosen, the life of the Spirit, let us make sure that we do not just hold it as an idea in our heads or a sentiment in our hearts, but work out its implications in every detail of our lives.” That’s exactly what we are all being invited to do during Lent. How is that going for you? If you haven’t given it much attention so far, you still have three weeks before Easter.
Personal Worship Option:
What is on the first list that you need to pray for help to get rid of? And what “fruit” on the second list do you most need to pray about receiving?
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