Wednesday, November 8, 2017

Moment by Moment 11/5-9/17

05-09 November 2017 - Moment by Moment – Manna by Dorothy Callies

Galatians 5:16 “Walk in the Spirit . . .”

The word, walk has a long list of meanings . . . to fit this sentence, “Walk in the Spirit,” I choose this kind of meaning.  Walk=manner (the way) of living: conduct, behavior in social life. It is like a various walks of live. In another word, our daily life-style or daily way of living. Paul explained how to live a daily walk from Galatians 5:16-25. Paul explained the difference between the Spirit and the flesh.   

The best way to begin with is the Fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5:22-23. “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.” And verse 25 “If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.”

Something I just noticed, ‘live in the Spirit and walk in the Spirit.’  [This could create a sermon on the difference between live in and walk, but I will keep it simple in this Manna.] To live in the Spirit is inside of us, but Paul, the writer of Galatian encouraged us to “walk in the Spirit.”  I would like to quote from the “War Room” book, The Battle Plan for Prayer.

“Every believer in Jesus Christ has the Holy Spirit within them (Eph. 1:13-14).  But we must be filled with, submit to, and walk in the Sprit, as opposed to the following our sinful flesh.  The command to “be filled with the Spirit” (Eph. 5:18) is not just for Christians in charismatic leaning congregations.  The Greek tense used in Ephesians 5:18 is a command to keep being filled by God’s Spirit.  It is not a one-time experience but a moment by moment, daily way of living and submitting and walking in the Spirit (Gal. 5:16-25).”

Dorothy:  When I read that part that said, ‘moment by moment,’ suddenly I remembered a song for that. I search from the song book and was surprised to see it was still there after so many years from not singing this song. It will be included at the end.

What this Manna means to me? It seems that the Holy Spirit was encouraging me to focus on how to walk in the Spirit as a part of daily living. I struggle on day to day basis on the surrounding with Tony.  For example, I get irritated with him for being so slow.  I don’t get joy inside of me. Until a friend advise me to remember his age and let him be himself.  Just simply encourage him to walk more.

So when Tony decided to let us go out for late lunch/early dinner [He didn’t want me to cook. Sweet!] I changed my thought to enjoy him as he is and I held his arm close as he walked toward the car. Suddenly I felt the inner joy. We both cheer each other and it was awesome.  Then I understood one of the fruit that I was missing was joy. I share the song with Tony, “Moment by Moment” at Denny’s while we were waiting for our food. Tony remembered some words and sang along with me. It was good to share with him.

Song: Moment by Moment
Moment by moment I’m kept in His love;
Moment by Moment I’ve life from above;
Looking to Jesus till glory doth shine;
Moment by moment, O Lord, I am thine.
(Lyrics: Daniel Webster Whittle, Sing His Praise)

God bless you so much!

Dorothy

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