Near and Far Faith

Whenever I have to get up in the middle of the night, which is often right now with four children under four, I try to make any personal stops at the bathroom without turning on the lights. I’ve got a system: feel the wall to the door and turn left, feel the counter to it’s corner, turn right—toilet. But without those guidelines I’d never make it without getting hurt. It would, at the very least, take much longer and leave me disoriented… and that could get ugly.

As we journey towards a maturing identity in God, how do we know we’re heading the right way? Personally, I want specifics—I need to know what I’m doing wrong so I can fix it and what I’m doing right so I can do it again.

Read Galatians  5

Paul transitions after verse 15. He says “if you want to follow rules, then this is what that means.” But… verse 16 says “I say, let the Holy Spirit guide your lives “.  Life in the Spirit of God is our true identity. What it looks like can be measured.

List the evidence of a sinful spirit from verse 16-21

List the evidence (fruit) of the spirit from verses 22-23

Now list the ones from list 1 that are present in your life and need to go.

List the ones from list 2 that you need improvement on.

To take this to the next level, ask a close friend to evaluate you on these lists.