Living To Harvest A Spirit-Filled Life

“Living To Harvest A Spirit-Filled Life”

By Zach Wood

Galatians 6:8 NLT

Those who live only to satisfy their own sinful nature will harvest decay and death from that sinful nature. But those who live to please the Spirit will harvest everlasting life from the Spirit.

Have you ever taken a bite out of a piece of food that appeared to look good on the outside, but then it tasted rotten once you sunk your teeth in?  Yuck!!!  The only thing you can think of is spitting all of that gross stuff from your mouth and getting some water to rinse your mouth of the horrible taste.  Not one of us likes taking a bite of anything only to discover something rotten on the inside. 

How many of us would ever choose to pick up something rotten and eat it?  We wouldn’t because we now only know it looks and probably tastes gross, but we could also very likely become sick.  It would be dumb to eat it and expect to enjoy it and have our bodies nourished from it.  We would throw it away and get rid of it. 

I cannot help but think of how often we do this in our lives with our walk in God.  How often do we take a “bite” from the things of this world thinking we will reap some benefits by chasing after our desires of the flesh?  We chase for so long thinking that the next “bite” will finally satisfy.  We only find ourselves, unfortunately, continuing to bite the same spoiled or rotten things and wonder why we aren’t growing in our relationship with God. 

If we get up in the morning and go through our day and only seek to satisfy our selfish desires, then we will only reap decay and death.  There is no life found in chasing after what we think will make us feel good.  If all we wish to do is go after what we think is good or what makes us feel good, we will find no growth in our faith.  However, if we wake in the morning and do all we can to seek Him and turn away from worldly desires, we will be amazed at the life we find in the Spirit. 

So, my question for all of us is this, “Why do we keep repeatedly chasing after the same desires day after day when they do nothing but leave us dry and longing for only what the Spirit can give us?”  My hope and prayer is that each of us will live each day with no other desire than to harvest everlasting life by chasing after fulfillment from the Spirit of God.  There is no better refreshment.