17.05 | Realigned
Galatians 5:15-6:18
‘But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do.’
Galatians 5:16-17
You do you.
It’s a phrase most of us know. We intuitively get it. It connects to so many essential ideals of our age.
Be true to your desires. Express yourself. Follow your heart. Be authentic to your true self.
Sociologists have called this the age of ‘expressive individualism’,1 and it is the outcome of a few centuries of developing thought, swinging the pendulum away from historic ideals of shared morality and communal behaviour in favour of increasing focus upon the desires of the individual self. The world in which we live is drowning in increasing legislation to protect the rights of each individual to live out their inward desires. Whether we call it postmodernism, liberalism, pluralism, consumerism, or individualism, all the -isms come out of this essential focus on living out your inner desires.
Paul’s words, today, then, are confrontational to our culture.
Your desires, he argues, are so often broken. They are wounded and marred, often more characterised by wanting that which is destructive rather than wanting that which is truly good. He describes these the desires of the flesh which in turn lead to the works of the flesh. All manner of human brokenness comes out of this essential woundedness that we all carry. The suggestion, for Paul, of following all of our inner desires would be utter madness. And the idea that these broken feelings show us who we most truly are, would be heinous to his thought.
Paul has a very different angle for us.
…walk by the Spirit … led by the Spirit … live by the Spirit … keep in step with the Spirit … sows to the Spirit …
Walk by. Be led by. Live by. Keep in step with. Sow to.
What’s he trying to say?
He’s offering us a beautiful alternative.
It is an alternative to our culture, arguing that liberty does not come from ongoing enslavement to our broken desires, but rather is found through the transformation of these desires as we learn to point our lives towards the Spirit of God.
The Spirit of God, who lives in us. Who works to change us. Who is the very power and presence of God in our innermost self — endlessly working for the re-creation of the willing.
Walk by. Be led by. Live by. Keep in step with. Sow to.
In other words, my friends:
Yield.
Utterly surrender. Surrender our moments and our money and our many many choices. Let our times of prayer be surrender and our times of browsing be surrender. Let our times of worship be surrender and our times of work be surrender. Let our words and wallets and waking and walking all be surrender.
Do these things change our desires?
Not exactly.
But the yielding makes the space where the Spirit does the changing.
Where the Spirit of God, desiring and longing and hoping within you, starts to grow new desires — fruit of the Kingdom, fruit of heaven, fruit of His very self — within you. Where your feelings change from warped cravings and reactive anger and oppressive anxiety to earnest love, bubbling joy, saturating peace, unshifting patience, gratuitous kindness, deep goodness, enduring faithfulness, powerful gentleness, and unflinching self-control.
The dysfunction of our cultural narratives is increasingly revealing its dysfunction. We need something greater. Paul today offers us the Gospel’s beautiful alternative: to align with the Spirit.
May this be our way, that the fruit of His heart grow within us, unto an extraordinary harvest.
Reflect:
Let your mind wander over your day.
As you consider your various tasks and duties, ask the Spirit what it would look like to yield to Him in these things.
One by one, yield your heart.
And invite Him afresh to grow His fruit within you on this altar of your surrender.
Pray:
Spirit of the Living God,
Today, afresh,
I yield.
My desires are so often broken:
They are anxious and angry and petulant and demanding;
They are irritable and fearful and competing and jealous;
They are lustful and bitter and divisive and avoidant.
And so,
Today,
I realign.
I choose to walk with you:
To be led by you;
To live by you;
To keep in step with you;
To sow to you—
That my every choice and direction and habit of my heart
Be gradually aligned
To your life and fire and passions,
Unto the perfect restoration of this wounded soul
And the transformation of my heart.
In Jesus’ Name,
Amen
Old Testament:
For those also reading the Old Testament this year, your additional readings are here:
2 Samuel 18-19 | Proverbs 14:28-35
A phrase used byAmerican sociologist Robert Bellah in his 1985 book Habits of the Heart.