Before the apostle Paul listed the fruit of the Spirit in his letter to the churches in Galatia, he described a power available to us that goes way beyond self-control:
So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. — Galatians 5:16, emphasis added
In other words, live with the willingness to walk away when the Holy Spirit nudges you and says, "That food choice is permissible but not beneficial — so don't eat it."
Not sinful — please hear me on this.
- Food isn't sinful. But when food is what Satan holds up in front us and says, "You'll never be free from this battle. You aren't capable of self-control with food," we must see that its inappropriate consumption can be his lure to draw our hearts into a place of defeat.
For others it will be sex outside marriage, the inappropriate consumption of alcohol, illegal drugs, or some other physical means.
The obvious question, then, is how can we tune in to these nudges of the Holy Spirit? How can we "live by the Spirit"?
First, we have to know where the Spirit is and what He gives us. If we know Jesus as our personal Savior, the Bible teaches that we have the Holy Spirit living in us (Romans 8:11), infusing our lives with power that is beyond what we could muster up on our own.
Now then, how do we live by this Spirit and heed His voice of wisdom and caution? Here's what the apostle Paul said:
Let us keep in step with the Spirit. — Galatians 5:25
In other words, we read the Bible with the intention of practicing what we read while asking the Holy Spirit to direct us in knowing how to do this.
I often pray this prayer: "I need wisdom to make wise choices. I need insight to remember the words I've read in Scripture. I need power beyond what I can find on my own." It's not a magic prayer. I still have to make the choice to walk away from the source of my temptation.
And making that choice is sometimes really hard; I won't deny that.
Like when I'm in line at Starbucks. The barista takes my coffee order and then waves her hand like an enticing wand, directing my attention to a case full of delights that make a girl's taste buds dance. Seriously dance. Like the rumba, tango, and a snappy little quick step all in a row. My taste buds dance around while begging like a small child in the candy aisle.
"Would you like something to go with your coffee?" she asks.
Of course I'd like something — I'd like two or three somethings! And I'll be completely honest, it's in moments like these that I want to ask Eve to clarify one simple thing. Please tell me that something got lost in translation and what was really dangling from that tree limb all those years ago were treats like this. I'm just saying.
Anyhow. Like I said, it's not easy. It's not easy relying on the Holy Spirit to direct us into wise choices. It's not easy to dare to actually live a life in which we put Scripture in action. Especially scriptures about self-control.
It's not easy but it is possible.
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