Now if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.  And if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead lives in you, then He who raised Christ from the dead will also bring your mortal bodies to life through His Spirit who lives in you.     Romans 8:10-11  HCSB

Have you ever suffered from an illness that just drags you down?  You know, the kind that just leaves you feeling fatigued and feeling like you can’t lift your head up off the sofa?  Well, migraine headaches make me feel that way.  One of the symptoms I get is this awful fatigue that makes it almost impossible for me to do anything.  That combined with the sensitivity to light and sound, the nausea and dizziness,  and of course the awful pain will shut me down.  Now fortunately, there are some good medications, that when taken at the onset, will make me feel much better.  I can take this medicine and go lay down and usually within the hour I feel much better.  When I have a lot of things to do, it’s really good when this medicine works quickly and I can go about my tasks for the day.

The same holds true for those times when you are just really tired from a stressful day and you get a really good night’s rest.  It’s an awesome feeling to wake up feeling rested and refreshed.

Well, that’s what it’s like when you live a spirit filled life.  You see, we were never meant to live sin filled lives.  Now the devil tries to make the sin filled life look exciting and inviting.  It’s kind of like those beer commercials where everyone is on the beach, slim, tanned, and playing volleyball.  When in actuality most beer drinkers are sitting inside in front of the tv with a very pronounced beer gut.  Oh and they also don’t show the family torn apart by alcoholism or those suffering with liver diseases because of their drinking.  The devil likes to make sin look appealing.

Sin weighs on us and drags us down.  The problem with sinning is that one sin leads to another sin.  Although, there are no small sins and big sins, sin is all the same.  We start with what we consider to be a little sin and then before you know it we move on to what we consider bigger ones.  We may even find ourselves doing those things that we have judged others for.   Those things that we see others do and say, “I would never”.  Be very careful my friend, you never know.  If you give the devil an inch, he will take a mile.  If you give him one tiny little crack in the door, he will bust through there and take over.  I have heard it said that sin will take you farther than you wanted to go, keep you longer than you wanted to stay and cost you more than you wanted to pay.

Think about it this way, when we live in the flesh, we count on ourselves and others for the satisfaction, joy, and peace in our lives.  We all know that humans let us down, right?  But when we live in the Spirit, we count on God for satisfaction, joy, and peace.  We know that God provides all that we need (Philippians 4:19).  We know that God will give us unending joy (Romans 9:1-5).  We also know that God gives us a peace that passes all understanding (Philippians 4:7).  Any joy or peace that we get from the flesh is temporary and insufficient.

But the most important thing that we get from the Spirit is life.  Not only do we get a good life here on earth filled with peace and joy, but we get eternal life in glory with God the Father.  So today, think about this.  Where are you now?  Are you living a life filled with the Spirit?  Or are you busy satisfying the desires of the flesh?  You can’t do both, you know.

Living a life satisfying the desires of the flesh is sort of like a sugar high.  You will ride high for a brief period of time, but then you will crash and burn.  A life that is Spirit filled is one that is steady and true.  It is not filled with the emotional highs and lows that we get from satisfying our fleshly desires.   I know because I have been there.  Satisfying the desires of my flesh left me feeling as awful as a migraine headache.  If you have ever had one of those, you know what I mean.  But committing my life to God and allowing His Spirit to live inside of me, brought me back to life.  It gave me a life filled with peace and joy.

My prayer for you today is that you are reading this and nodding your head and saying, “yes that is what my Spirit filled life has done for me.”  But if you are reading this and saying,  “wow, I wish my life were like that,”  I want you to know that it can be.  Submit yourself to God, trust in Him,  repent of your sin and ask Him to fill you with His Holy Spirit so that you might be able to turn from your sin and  live for Him.  When you do this, you will gain so much more than you lose.  It is a decision that I assure you, you will never regret.

So come alive in Christ today!  There’s no better time than right now.

Have a great day!