Walk By The Spirit

 So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. (Galatians 5:16)

Do I really need to tell you that this doesn’t work? I mean, how many times have you prayed that God would fix something in your life, change you in some way, and it just hasn’t happened? It’s like the scene in the movie, “Young Sherlock Holmes.” Sherlock scratches a couple of notes his violin, and raises it above his head to smash it. When the young Watson stops him, Sherlock expresses his disgust that he hasn’t mastered it. Watson asks how long he’s been playing, and Sherlock says, “Three days.”

          We’re often like Sherlock. We’ve prayed about this weakness, that sin, or some other problem for ten minutes, three days, a year, or ten years, and it seems that nothing has happened. We haven’t mastered our “violin.” Or, we did master it, but somewhere along the line, we stopped practicing, and now … heavy sigh … what’s the use?

          But is praying about something the same as walking by the Spirit?

          Does perceived failure in something mean real failure? Or does it suggest unrealistic expectations on our part?

          Is the thing we’re failing at what the Spirit wants to work on, or what we want to work on? I want to be trim and healthy. I don’t want to be a glutton. But what if the Spirit is more interested in teaching me to love my neighbor as myself, or to have faith than He is in making me a poster child for self-control? Of, what if He is pointing to keep my attention off something He’s working on that might be more painful, were I to notice?

          The Spirit didn’t remove Paul’s “thorn in the flesh” even though Paul prayed about it three times. In fact, the Spirit told Paul to stop praying about it. Paul’s weakness revealed God’s strength.

          There’s a video in which a woman gives up the “throne” of her life to “Jesus,” then she tries to join him on the throne, to the point that she climbs onto him – not sitting in his lap, but clinging to his head, with one leg hooked over his shoulder (or some such awkward position.) It’s easy for us to try to direct the Spirit in how to make us whole and holy. But that’s not walking with the Spirit. That’s leading the Spirit.

          Grace, and the other dogs I’ve owned, are great examples of this. When we go for a walk, she wants to lead. She pulls off the sidewalk toward a heap of Spanish moss, or forward toward people sitting on a bench, or she slams on the brakes because there’s a spot of P-mail she hasn’t “read.” Is she walking with me? Only in the vaguest sense. All those things are incredibly important to her. I could not care less. There are other times when I try to direct her toward a person, and she could not care less, until she gets done with what she was doing. Then, “Oh, good! PEOPLE!”

          Walking by the Spirit involves walking with the Spirit. Letting Him call the shots, and point out what He thinks is important at the moment. That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t pay attention to  our failures, weaknesses, faults, and sins. It doesn’t mean we shouldn’t talk to God about them. It just means that He’s the one leading the way. His apparent failure probably means He’s focusing on something else He thinks more important.