Day 293- Freedom Isn't Free
📖Daily Reading
Galatians 5
Join me on my morning walk as we rise and shine together by walking through the Bible daily and learn a practical applicable coaching nugget from the ultimate life coach - our creator (whatever that means to you). No judgement zone here, all are welcome, we are all on a spiritual journey because we are after all spiritual beings having a human experience.
📝 Reflection
Galatians 5: 18-23
“But when you are directed by the Spirit, you are not under obligation to the law of Moses. When you follow the desires of your sinful nature, the results are very clear: sexual immorality, impurity, lustful pleasures, idolatry, sorcery, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissension, division, envy, drunkenness, wild parties, and other sins like these. Let me tell you again, as I have before, that anyone living that sort of life will not inherit the Kingdom of God. But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things!”
We are all free, but freedom isn’t free of consequences. When accepting grace and knowing you are loved no matter what it might be tempting to party like it’s 1999 as Prince sang about. But freedom has it’s price. When living by the spirit, the higher self and for long term beneficial consequences it is wiser to limit your freedom and submit to things that might not be as fun and immediately gratifying to the flesh. Those ‘fun’ things may be fun in the moment but they bring chaos in the long term.
Paul says it so eloquently here, freedom in Christ and living by the Holy Spirit produces love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control. There is no law against these things - there is no need. They are health promoting on all levels for the individual human and for all humanity. This is what he means when he say that those who live this way will inherit the Kingdom of God.
Inherit is a word that is similar to promise. A future assurance of something happening. This is the struggle of the human. Living by the spirit requires faith because the fruit of what Paul talks about takes a while to grow. While the other things listed are immediately available and often gratifying in the moment. This is the conundrum for many of us; live for the moment and give up your freedom long term or be disciplined and limit your freedom in the moment for long term freedom and peace?
The tricky part about the law is that if you follow one law you must follow all laws. You can’t live in freedom and by the law. Many of us try that too, it just doesn’t work. Paul says it this way, “what is important is faith expressing itself in love.” We must love ourselves and love each other. And this love will compel us to have faith to make decisions for our long term benefit and for others. And the patience and perseverance to go through the growing process that will bear the fruit in our lives. Then we can experience God’s Kingdom and heaven on earth.
As I was reading through this chapter and meditating on it, it reminded me of the spirit of what is now known as the Serenity Prayer. This was a prayer written by theologian Reinhold Niebuhr:
God, give us grace to accept with serenity the things that cannot be changed, Courage to changed the things which should be changed, and the wisdom to distinguish one from the other. Living one day at a time, enjoying one moment at a time, accepting hardship as a pathway to peace, taking as Jesus did, the sinful world as it is. Not as I would have it, trusting that You will make all things right, if I surrender to Your will, so that I may be reasonably happy in this life, and supremely happy with You forever in the next.
To me this captures the spirit of what Paul might be trying to get us to understand about how to live this human life in freedom with joy, responsibility and receive the peace that surpasses understanding. I had a God wink😉, confirmation of this shortly after my quiet time. A young man who was helping me at a store had the Serenity Prayer tattooed on his arm. It was his mother’s favorite prayer and he said ‘it washed over me growing up’ and he wanted the reminder of that always. 💖 You can’t make this stuff up! God is so good!
 
✍🏼Daily Journal Prompt
How do you need to limit your freedom? Do you feel captive by the law or even your own behaviors?
📖Tomorrows Reading
Galatians 6
Coaching Opportunity
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