“But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.” (Romans 8:11 NAS95)
God has brought this verse to mind repeatedly in recent days. I think Easter and the resurrected Christ holds center stage in it. It brings hope to my life. Deep hope.
I don’t like the automatic habits in my life that disrupt love, especially to those close to me. My journey to focus on the spiritual formation of any soul, including mine, grew out of disdain for what I could not control in my reactions. I say reactions since I did not consciously intend the way I, at times, responded to those close to me. I knew those responses hurt them. Yet, I struggled because I had already trusted Jesus, had journeyed for a while with Him and had no desire to pursue sin consciously or subconsciously. I had a struggle.
Jesus started clarifying the Spirit and His role in my life. The Spirit wanted me to learn to love, especially those closest to me. Similarly, He (the Spirit) knew that my responses flowed out of a life of formation around my own self-centeredness and a deep preference for positive emotional experience. He also knew that desire for positive emotional experience resulted from now-hidden-to-me choices I had made, that had formed habit, automatic habit, outside of my conscious control habit, in my life.
Jesus then informed me that the Spirit empowers love and seeks to form that very same love, God’s kind, in my life. I needed to surrender and allow the Spirit to form new habits through entering various disciplines. I noticed over time that those disciplines had a lot of side effects that I liked. I started seeing powers in my soul that derailed it from love (the good for the other). I started sensing things prior to acting so different choices could be made, and different habits shaping me could form that would become automatic, allowing me to grow in expressing love. The Spirit gives life since He is love, the same love expressed through Jesus and the Father.
The Spirit and His leadership have loved my inner cracks and crevices through the spiritual disciplines He’s led me into and the result has been life giving habits growing in automation over time. The Spirit will give life, and He gives it to my mortal body in a resurrected way so that love, His kind, is the outcome along with a newly automated habit. Happy Resurrection!
For Reflection
“For with You is the fountain of life; in Your light we see light.” (Psalm 36:9 NAS95)
- What are the positive side-effects of the spiritual disciplines out of which God has invited you to practice?
- What else is God putting on your heart to practice in order to grow in His kind of love?
