Now the works of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, moral impurity, promiscuity, idolatry, sorcery, hatreds, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambitions, dissensions, factions, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and anything similar. I tell you about these things in advance-as I told you before-that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faith, gentleness, self-control. Against such things there is no law.      Galatians 5:19-22 HCSB

How you walk says a lot about you.  It speaks to your physical condition as well as your mindset.  Many tests have shown that victims of crimes are often selected because of their walk.  Criminals look at things to see how confident their walk is, how strong they appear to be from their walk, whether they are walking mindlessly or paying attention to their surroundings.  Even us non-criminals tend to judge those that we don’t know by their walk.  If a person walks with their back straight and their shoulders back and chest out, we tend to see that person as strong and confident.  Whereas a person who walks slouched over with their back slightly bent and chest sunk in we may tend to seek as weak, lacking in self confidence, and perhaps even sickly.

As Christians, we have two things that we must be careful of and that’s our walk and our talk.  The two should line up with each other, but unfortunately that is not always the case. It’s easy to go to church on Sunday morning and put on your best, “I love the Lord” smile and greet your fellow brothers and sisters in Christ.  But out in the world, it can be a different story altogether.  Sometimes we have situations in our church which make it difficult to show the fruit of the Spirit even there.

These situations are our circumstances.  They are those things that go on around us which we cannot control.  I cannot control how anyone else behaves inside of church or out in the world.  I can only control me.  When my walk and my talk show someone who is living according to their circumstances, the devil wins.

Now, if you’ve read the end of the Book, then you know that God wins.  Good triumphs over evil every time.  But, if we are not careful, we can let the devil win in our lives.  We can give him a foothold.  The devil wants to take over how we walk and talk and if we give him the tiniest crack, he will bust right on in and take control.

Sunday our pastor preached a sermon on Ephesians 6:12 reminding us that our battle is not with flesh and blood, but with the devil and his minions.  The devil will use others to destroy our witness. He will use others to mess up our walk.

Remember David, the shepherd boy that killed the giant, the valiant warrior who grew to be a mighty man of God? David grew complacent and was tempted by Bathsheba.  His sin of adultery led to his committing murder by murdering Bathsheba’s husband.  He was so confounded by the devil at this point that it took the prophet Nathan to point out his sin to him (2 Samuel 11-12). The devil had gotten a hold of David.  We all slip and fall, but we must get back up. We must walk as children of the living God.  We must walk with the confidence that God’s got this.  We can do this if we are willing to submit and surrender to Him.

Yesterday we read the scripture passage Matthew 11:29 which tells us that if we take up Christ’s  yoke and learn from Him because He is gentle and humble in heart that we will find rest for ourselves.  We will walk lighter.  We will walk with confidence and a spring in our step and that will speak volumes to those around us.

Know that while your talk is but a whisper, your walk screams out to others who and what you truly are.  My prayer for you today is that your walk screams out that you are a child of God.  I pray that it screams that you are not perfect, but you are forgiven and you are trying your best to live according to the example set for us by Jesus Christ.  I pray that your walk looks as though your burden and your heart is light.

If your heart is heavy, then your walk is burdened. Stop and give that load over to God.  Allow Him to carry it for you. He’s strong enough to carry our load. He’s big enough to handle any problem we face.  Give it over to Him and walk with love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, faith, goodness, gentleness and self-control.  You’ll feel as though you are walking on air in no time.

Have a great day!