Daily Devotion February 22

February 22: Galatians 5:19-26

KJV Key Verse: Galatians 5:22
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,

Devotion:
If you think that it is difficult to tell the difference between going the way of the world and listening and following God, then you need to take another look at these verses. But then there are going to be many of you who will immediately identify with these verses and yet stop half way on the journey… When God said that we should turn our backs on worldly ways it was not a meek suggestion to stop doing the horrible things we find listed in these verses but rather a commandment to turn away from them altogether. It is no use saying that you are not going to give in to adultery any more and yet continue having parties and getting drunk all the time…

Turning you back on worldly ways means not just giving them up for Lent but turning away from them altogether in your life. That means not going there through temptations, not going to a place where you will be tempted by them, not wanting to go there… That’s the hard part because we may well have had these habits or problems in our lives for a long time and giving them up may be hard, but the thoughts continue on for a lot longer!

So how do you stop yourself thinking about those things? Unfortunately the answer is, “you don’t!” because you are the one who had them in your life and you are the one who broke the rules so you could have them. You are the one who got used to them and now you are the one thinking of them all the time to try and give them up! So if you can’t do what God is asking you to do – what do you do?

You take your problem to God and you lay it at His feet asking Him to give you the wherewithal to remove that from your life. There is no way you will be able to do it yourself – you couldn’t do it the first time and you probably won’t do it every time you try… but God can give you the strength to combat them and to help you remove them from your life. It is through Christ that you will succeed and not through your own strength!

Points to Ponder:
Do you give in too easily?

Are you asking God to help you?