I AM: Complete Week Seven - Day One

By Central Women

Do you ever find yourself feeling dissatisfied, incomplete, longing for more fulfillment no matter how great or how poor your circumstances are? Recently, I found myself longing for things of the world, noticing it was never enough to satisfy my soul. I noticed I was on a downward slope beginning to feel apathetic and less interested in Jesus and more interested in stuff, things, social events, social media, and distractions from our culture.

All of these attempts to satisfy my soul fell short. I was allowing some insecurities of comparison, rejection and shifting relationships to creep in and cast a shadow over my identity and perspective.

As I prayed through this season, the word satisfied kept coming to my mind and the truth that we can be fully satisfied in Christ alone. The truth that in Him, we are made complete. How refreshing.

I began to think of all the things that distract us from Jesus and how there is a battle within in each of us daily that is at war for our identity. This is a battle I needed to be more aware of so I could recognize what was feeding my mind and heart. The easiest way to lose a fight is not to know you are in one. Take a moment to read Galatians 5:16-26 that illuminates this battle.

Five themes build on each other as I read this text: the battle, the opponent, the weapon, the death, and finding life.

I love how this passage describes there is a battle underway. It shows how the flesh and the Spirit have competing desires, how the two are in complete opposition to one another.

“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 5:17

This is the tension you and I experience in our daily lives as we face the desires within us (what the Bible calls the flesh), which wrestle against the desires of the Holy Spirit that God places inside us. The more we recognize which desire is being fed, the more we can understand where we are placing our identity and significance.

Next, the opponent is identified in verses 19-20. Often what steals our identity of being complete, the thing that robs us of our joy, peace, purpose, and calling, leaving us frazzled and restless, is when we have given into the desires of our flesh, our opponent.

These verses describe the opponent as “obvious” or “evident,” in other words, there is no mystery here. Often we can be in a tangle of webs in our heart and mind over minor things that interrupt or disrupt our day causing us anxiety, worry, jealousy, envy or temper tantrums. As we uncover our adversary and identify what it is, we can find freedom.

We continue to gain understanding as we keep reading and learn about a weapon to use as we fight this battle of the flesh that has the potential to steal our inheritance (v. 21). We have tremendous power over the flesh found in the Holy Spirit.

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.” Galatians 5:22-23

As we rest our minds, attitudes and actions on the fruits of the spirit we are living out of our truest identity, we are living out of the Spirit rather than our run down flesh. This is the way our Maker has crafted our souls to operate filled with Him.

As we grow in this practice of living out of the Holy Spirit, we have another application in verse 24, “And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.”

Wow, do those words get your attention? We are talking death and life here. This is an invitation to put down false identities or distractions of lesser things and to claim the reality that this has already been done for you when you surrendered your life to Christ. We can put to death the passions and desires of our flesh because we belong to Jesus Christ. We worship a God that is more powerful than anything that competes for our identity, and our deep connection to Jesus. We can choose to pray, recite truth from Scripture, talk with a friend, and care about what Jesus cares about and allow those false identities and temptations to be put to death, just as you did when Jesus died for you, and gain life by walking in the Spirit (v. 25).

Reflect:

What are the cravings of your flesh? What is feeding your thoughts and desires? What are the lesser identities you are tempted to settle for?

What makes you feel complete? What makes you feel incomplete?

What is God inviting you to do or believe more fully?

Jesus, thank You for the gift of the Holy Spirit that lives inside of us helping us with every temptation. Show us how to live out of an overflow of You. Help each of us to be growing in our complete satisfaction in You. Amen.