God is Always Trying to Protect Us

THE WORD:  “Then God said to him in the dream, ‘Yes, I know you did this with a clear conscience, and so I have kept you from sinning against me.  That is why I did not let you touch her.’” – Genesis 20:6

MY TRUTH:  Sometimes we are ignorant to what we do and the sins we are about to commit.  In this passage, King Abimelech has taken Abraham’s wife Sarah to have relations with her because Abraham and Sarah have told him that she is Abraham’s sister not wife.  However, God tells King Abimelech in a dream the truth about Sarah; she is in fact Abraham’s wife not sister.  God kept King Abimelech and Sarah from sinning and protected Abraham from his lie. There are two key lessons we can learn from this passage: 

#1 – In your ignorance, God will prevent you from doing wrong.  He will give you an outlet or awareness to your potential sin and will convict your spirit in some way just as He convicted King Abimelech through a dream (v. 3).  He is not a deceiver but a protector and lover, and He wants to protect us from harm.  We just have to listen for and heed His fatherly advice.  And when we obey, we will be restored (v. 17-18).

#2 – God protects His children even in our mess.  A mother always has their child’s back and defends them even when they are sometimes wrong.   God does the same thing.  Look at Abraham, thinking he is doing something beneficial when he lies about who his wife really is (v. 10-13).  But God protects him even in his lie.  What a merciful and forgiving God!  God ensures Abraham and his wife aren’t sinned against.  We aren’t going to always get it right, but we can be assured that God is still present helping us through; helping us clean up the mess we have created.

Spirit vs. Flesh

THE WORD:  ¹⁶So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.  ¹⁷For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh.  They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you want.  ¹⁸But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.  ¹⁹The acts of the flesh are obvious:  sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; ²⁰idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions ²¹and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like.  I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.  ²²But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, ²³gentleness and self-control.  Against such things there is no law.  ²⁴Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.  ²⁵Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.  ²⁶Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other. – Galatians 5:16-26

MY TRUTH:  There is so much to say about this passage!  We are never going to get rid of our flesh.  It will always be present fighting against the Spirit.  However this conflict is good!  Praise God for it, for this is how we are able to recognize right from wrong.  Without this conflict we wouldn’t know which way to go.  God has given us free will so we have to make a choice whether we will obey the Spirit or succumb to our flesh.  God has given us this guide to know when we are operating in the flesh versus the Spirit so we have no excuse.  We just have to make ourselves aware of this reality every moment of the day so we won’t get caught up in acts of the flesh.  Now this can be pretty difficult given that sometimes there are more fleshly things in the earth to keep us distracted than spiritual things.  That is why it is important for us to always be tuned in to God and know the difference between fleshly acts and Spiritual ones which is why I am so glad God provided us with this passage of scripture; it’s plain and simple!  The flesh will always be present but thank God that if we have accepted the Lord as our Savior we also have the Spirit dwelling in us to keep us on point.  Therefore since our renewed selves live by the Spirit let us do spiritual things! (v. 25)

Side bar:  The other day I was totally operating in the flesh….smh.  I had let my flesh win.  Many of the acts of the flesh are pretty obvious and easy to be aware of (i.e. sexual immorality, hatred, drunkenness) but some can sort of ride under the radar and are not the “big sins” we always hear about.  So I now realize that the other day I was partaking in the fleshly act of discord and fits of rage in my household.  I was being a drama queen over who knows what and discord and rage was all up in the atmosphere.  It was hard for me to turn this around which surprised me and made me aware that I myself Mykia can do NOTHING without God.  I thought I was further along in my walk and could shut stuff like this down immediately but I realized that no matter where I am in my walk I have to realize nothing is by my own doing but through God’s help.  We may think having a little fit and causing discord is small but it is not of God and He is not pleased when we do these things.  Again we will never be perfect and will ALWAYS struggle with acts of the flesh but thank God that the Spirit is there to calm us down and to convict us.  In hindsight, when I started to feel rage rising up in me I should have paused, prayed, and activated love and self-control but I failed.  However, through my failure I learned this valuable lesson about what to do next time and realized how I need to work on building some of the fruit of the Spirit and that I can do nothing on my own but only with God.  So I guess really there was no failure but a gaining of wisdom.   

A note about the graphics below:  For easy reference on acts of the flesh versus fruit of the spirit I have created the visual below using what is presented in the New International Version of the bible.  In parenthesis I have placed synonyms for these words as they are presented in the following translations of the bible:  Common English Bible, Good News Bible, Amplified Bible.  A star (*) beside a word or phrase indicates my own interpretation of the word based on synonyms that I have looked up via a thesaurus or my own opinion based on my biblical interpretation.  Please help keep me honest and if you have an alternative or disagree please please post and let me know.  I love learning from and hearing the opinions of others.  In general, feel free to place other synonyms for any of the words that will help us better recognize these things in our daily lives.  Also I encourage you to write out some actions that describe the acts of the flesh and fruit of the spirit.  I started doing this and was going to include these actions in the visual, however after thinking I thought it would be best for you to do this yourself to represent how God is convicting you in these different areas.  I did not want to put actions in your mouth that you may not agree with or that God hasn’t convicted you with, which would’ve come off as judgmental.  So I encourage you to do this yourself and to add to it as God reveals His truths to you.

Signs from Above

THE WORD:  “I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth.” – Genesis 9:13

MY TRUTH:  In this passage God provides us with a sign, a reminder to let us know that He will never destroy the earth again by flood.  This sign wasn’t for God, for He is all knowing and He never forgets His promises.  This sign was for us.  God knows that our flesh sometimes limits us.  Someone may say something to us but we often need “proof” or some type of “signature/contract” for us to truly believe.  Now God didn’t have to provide us with this sign.  He could’ve said, “Look, I said it so you should believe it.”  He was God after all; His word sovereign.  However He was kind enough to give us this sign knowing our limitations so that we would always know that He is with us and will keep His promises.  There may be signs of God’s promises to us evident in our lives today.  He may provide us with symbols or people that remind us of His promises.  Let us search or simply be still enough to realize in our fear, confusion, and daily struggles what signs God gives us of His promises.  And if He doesn’t give us a sign, let us have the faith to just believe.