IS MY LIFE STALLED?

Frustrated businessman with his broken car looking in frustration at failed engine.

GALATIANS 5:16-17: “But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh. For the desire of the flesh is against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition to one another, in order to keep you from doing whatever you want.” NASB

OBSERVATION: Is my life stalled? Am I moving forward in life or is my life like a walk on a treadmill, filled with activity but really going nowhere? The life of a believer should be a life that has forward momentum. It should be a life that is continually changing, growing, and being transformed into the image of Jesus Christ.

Why then do we often find our lives stalled?

For a follower of Jesus Christ there still remains a battle between the flesh and the spirit. The spirit of a believer has been born again by the Spirit of God through faith in Jesus Christ. Yet, this does not mean that there is an end to the struggle against sin in our lives. We still live in a fallen world. We still live in a dying and decaying body. And, we still battle with temptations from our old lives.

While a believer can backslide into sin, it does not take a complete fall into our former way of life to stall our lives. All it takes for the enemy of our souls to stall us is to get us preoccupied with some aspect of our old nature. The enemy can use previous hurts, temptations, or weaknesses to derail our progress. When we begin to focus on these once again we find our forward progression comes to an abrupt stop. Paul puts it this way.

• “For the desire of the flesh is against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition to one another, in order to keep you from doing whatever you want.”

Note the goal of the works of the flesh. For the believer, all they need to do is distract him, to alter his focus, and when this happens he finds his life stalled. There is one force pulling him toward the will of God – the Spirit, and another pulling him toward his old nature – the flesh (our old broken sinful nature). It becomes a human tug of war and the result is that we find ourselves stalled in life. If this condition is not corrected we then can begin to backslide into the old life we once lived!

You cannot mix oil and water. You cannot mix the desires of the flesh and the Spirit. They are antithetical to one another. One calls us to a cultivation of the life of Christ, the fruit of the Holy Spirit. The other calls us back to the life we turned from when we gave our lives to Jesus Christ. One is the enemy’s attempt to kill, steal, and destroy God’s will and purposes in our life. The other is the Spirit’s work of bringing us into the abundant life that Jesus promised.

All you have to do is continue reading Paul’s letter to the Galatians and compare the list of the works of the flesh to the fruit of the Spirit. When compared side by side it is an easy choice. Yet, in the daily grind of life, we can lose our focus and begin to dust off our old baggage. We can be enticed once again to sin, harbor anger or unforgiveness, or begin to doubt our faith. When this happens we will find ourselves stalled once again.

What is the answer? Is there any hope?

When we gave our hearts and lives to Jesus Christ we did so with a full understanding that we were lost sinners in need of a Savior. We came without hope and placed our full hope and trust in Jesus Christ. We turned from our sin, our self-reliance, and anything that we were holding onto. We laid everything down at the foot of the cross.

This is the only way we can continue to move forward!

When we find ourselves stalled in life it is a warning that we have moved our full dependence upon Jesus Christ to something else. The Holy Spirit is calling us to move forward. This is a call of faith. It is a call to respond to the grace of God. It is a call to once again embrace the cross of Jesus Christ.

This can only be done with a surrendered heart and empty hands!

We have a choice to make each and every day, each and every moment of our lives. It is a choice to follow the pathway of brokenness or to follow the pathway of the Holy Spirit. If we can only be born again by the Spirit of God then we must realize that we can only grow in Christ through the Spirit of God. When our lives are fully surrendered to the leading of the Spirit we move forward and we experience the life and freedom of Jesus Christ. So Paul sums it up this way.

• “If we live by the Spirit, let’s follow the Spirit as well.” Galatians 5:25

The Christian life is not rocket science. Rather, it is a simple call of surrender. It is a call to turn from our old way of life, embrace the cross of Jesus Christ, and earnestly follow the leading of the Holy Spirit.

Lord, this morning, grant me the grace to both live and follow the Holy Spirit as He leads me in the pathway and the process of being transformed into the image and character of Jesus Christ. May I turn from everything that would stall this progression and find my life growing and changing in the power of Your great and all sufficient grace!

In Jesus’ Name!