“But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.” Galatians 5:16
I work in a hospital that has seven floors. I work on the 5th floor and often travel between the floors. When I started working at this hospital, I would try to take the stairs regularly for exercise. When I was pregnant with my daughter, Jane, I stopped taking the stairs at work. Yet now that I’m no longer pregnant I’m trying to be more intentional about getting back into exercising when I can.
As I was recently climbing the steps at work, a thought occurred to me that a decision to take the stairs is somewhat like living intentionally in step with the Holy Spirit.
Walking with God or living in step with the Spirit is a metaphor that the Bible uses for living in fellowship with God on a daily basis. We generally don’t drift into being aligned with God, rather close fellowship with God takes intentional prayer, meditation on His Word, listening to His voice and leading, and other spiritual disciplines that cultivate our life with God.
It would be a lot easier for me to take the elevator at work, but the more I choose to do that the more I drift into being less physically active which can have negative heath consequences.
The same is true with being in step with the Holy Spirit. If we get complacent or take the option that always feels easiest and end up pushing our relationship with Jesus to the back burner, it is easy to drift away from being aligned and in step with God and that has negative spiritual consequences.
The Christian life is a long walk in the same direction by the power of the Holy Spirit. It is not simply lounging nor is it a sprint. It is a day-to-day lifelong process of surrender to God and an intentional cultivation our relationship with Him on a daily basis. Sure, this requires more effort, but it is for an objective that is worth every effort.