July 27–Blended with the Spirit

It’s a summer weekend and I hoe you have all kinds of wonderful things planned. Yesterday I baked snickerdoodle cookies for my boss. He’d done a favor for me in May and I’d told him I’d bake for him. (Never let it be said I’m fast!) The secret to good snickerdoodles is in the beating of the butter and sugar. When you first start, it is the color of the butter. But after five minutes or so of high speed mixing, the butter/sugar combo lightens up a couple of shades—noticeably lighter, as though the sugar has decided to shine through. The two ingredients have taken on a new physical property because they have been blended so tightly together. 


That’s the way God wants us to be with His Holy Spirit. He wants us to be so tightly blended with it, that we are changed—that the Spirit shines through and we are no longer like we were before. One by one, our old characteristics of hatefulness, selfishness, deceitfulness and prideful becomes our new nature of goodness, kindness, patience, thoughtfulness, peacefulness, joy and above all love. Instead of resenting people and wanting to have more than they do, we love them and are genuinely happy for them when they do well. God’s Spirit is shinning through. 


And when the Spirit shines through, we are much better adjusted humans. It doesn’t make our lives perfect—far from it—but by leaning on the Spirit, we can handle the junk life throws at us with a calmness and a peacefulness the world simply can’t understand. 


“So I say, let the Holy Spirit guide your lives. Then you won’t be doing what your sinful nature craves. The sinful nature wants to do evil, which is just the opposite of what the Spirit wants. And the Spirit gives us desires that are the opposite of what the sinful nature desires. These two forces are constantly fighting each other, so you are not free to carry out your good intentions...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! Those who belong to Christ Jesus have nailed the passions and desires of their sinful nature to his cross and crucified them there. Since we are living by the Spirit, let us follow the Spirit’s leading in every part of our lives.”

‭‭Galatians‬ ‭5:16-17, 19-25‬ ‭NLT‬‬


Father God, we praise your Name! We ask for help so that the Spirit might shine through in our lives. Help us to live by the Spirit and “follow the Spirit’s leading in every part of our lives.” We want to make sure our sinful nature has been nailed to the cross—we want to produce and model the fruit of the Spirit in all parts of our lives. Make us one Lord so that we will “change color” and become a new creation. How blessed we are to be loved by you and to be called your child. What an amazing God you are. We pray for those who are suffering today that you would ease their sorrows and for those who are fighting illness that you would touch them with your healing hand of mercy. Thank you for your mercy and your great grace on our lives. We love you Lord. Amen and amen. 


Love you dear one, 

Pam 


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