Managing Your Emotions

[Julie]

DAY 73

How Do You Want to Live?

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

When we are born again (2 Corinthians 5:17), we receive a new nature, which wants to follow and please God. But this doesn’t replace our old sinful nature, which wants to indulge our selfish, self-centered, fleshly desires with the things of the world. The two natures exist side by side and are in conflict with each other. The strongest one always wins.

In Galatians 5, Paul characterizes this as a battle between the works of the flesh (the old nature) and the fruit of the Holy Spirit (the new nature). The more you feed your spirit the Word of God, the stronger it will become, and vice versa.

Works of the flesh are listed in Galatians 5:19–21, and you can read about the fruit of the Spirit in today’s scripture passage. When you consider the emotions involved in the works of the flesh and those produced as we walk in the Spirit, which way do you want to live?

I recommend focusing on walking in the Spirit rather than trying not to walk in the flesh. Paul says, “Walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh” (Galatians 5:16).

I spent many years trying not to walk in the flesh. But I later realized that if I focused more on walking in the Spirit than on not walking in the flesh, there would be no room for the flesh. Only then did I begin to make progress. Hopefully this advice will help you cease striving to avoid the works of the flesh and empower you to live in the fruit of the Spirit.

Prayer: Help me, Lord, to abandon the works of the flesh by focusing on walking in the Spirit.


Joyce Meyer, Managing Your Emotions

 

[Julie]

Day 74

Practice Patience

When the people saw that Moses was so long in coming down from the mountain, they gathered around Aaron and said, “Come, make us gods who will go before us. As for this fellow Moses who brought us up out of Egypt, we don’t know what has happened to him.”
Exodus 32:1

The Israelites mentioned in today’s scripture didn’t like waiting for Moses to come back to them after meeting with God. They became so impatient that they demanded something visible to worship. They refused to wait on God and ended up worshipping a useless golden calf that resulted from the work of their own hands.

Impatience is a negative feeling we need to avoid. It causes a lot of stress. The simple truth is that we all have to wait on things we desire, so we might as well learn to wait patiently. The fruit of patience is in us as children of God, but we have to use self-control for it to manifest (Galatians 5:22–23). The flesh is naturally impatient, but thankfully it can be controlled and retrained.

One of the best ways to be patient is to keep your mind focused on what you are currently doing. Don’t be so focused on the destination that you fail to enjoy the journey. We live in a fast-paced society where everything moves quickly, and we can easily get caught up in the cycle of hurrying. But this is not good for us because it often puts us on edge emotionally. The slightest imposition or inconvenience can cause us to explode in frustration or anger.

Let’s practice keeping our emotions calm and having a patient attitude with situations, people, and ourselves. Most of all, let’s be patient with God when we are waiting on Him to do something we have asked Him to do. God has a perfect timing for all things, and He will not be rushed, so settle down and enjoy the wait.


Joyce Meyer, Managing Your Emotions