in our hearts

by marvin williams

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Galatians 5:1-22
The Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love (Galatians 5:22).

After observing the warm fellowship of believers in Jesus, this was the reaction of the unbelieving Greek writer Lucian (AD 120–200): “It is incredible to see the fervor with which the people of that religion help each other in their wants. They spare nothing. Their first legislator [Jesus] has put it in their heads that they are brethren.” Near the same time that Lucian wrote, Tertullian affirmed: “It is our care for the helpless, our practice of lovingkindness, that brands us in the eyes of many of our opponents. ‘Only look!’ they say. ‘Look how they love one another! Look how they are prepared to die for one another.’ ”

According to the apostle Paul, this type of love isn’t conjured up by human activity and effort. The Holy Spirit supernaturally produces, develops, and energizes it. Paul listed love first because it was the most important characteristic from which every other attribute should flow (Galatians 5:22).

We can’t love one another, the way that Jesus has loved us, through mere human effort (John 13:34); we need the Holy Spirit to empower and enable us to do so (John 14:15-17). When we walk in step with the Spirit, He enables us to serve one another (Galatians 5:13), fulfill the law of love (Galatians 5:14-16), demonstrate love in tangible ways, and make one another the priority.

When the Holy Spirit is at work in our lives, He creates the capacity in us to discern more and more that we are brothers and sisters (1 Thessalonians 4:9-10). As we keep in step with Him, He will put God’s love in our hearts. We will be obliged to care for the helpless, to meet the practical needs of our neighbor, and to be one in heart and mind with other believers (Acts 4:31-35).

our daily journey

The Discipline of Hearing

Whatever I tell you in the dark, speak in the light; and what you hear in the ear, preach on the housetops —Matthew 10:27

Sometimes God puts us through the experience and discipline of darkness to teach us to hear and obey Him. Song birds are taught to sing in the dark, and God puts us into “the shadow of His hand” until we learn to hear Him (Isaiah 49:2). “Whatever I tell you in the dark. . .”— pay attention when God puts you into darkness, and keep your mouth closed while you are there. Are you in the dark right now in your circumstances, or in your life with God? If so, then remain quiet. If you open your mouth in the dark, you will speak while in the wrong mood— darkness is the time to listen. Don’t talk to other people about it; don’t read books to find out the reason for the darkness; just listen and obey. If you talk to other people, you cannot hear what God is saying. When you are in the dark, listen, and God will give you a very precious message for someone else once you are back in the light.

After every time of darkness, we should experience a mixture of delight and humiliation. If there is only delight, I question whether we have really heard God at all. We should experience delight for having heard God speak, but mostly humiliation for having taken so long to hear Him! Then we will exclaim, “How slow I have been to listen and understand what God has been telling me!” And yet God has been saying it for days and even weeks. But once you hear Him, He gives you the gift of humiliation, which brings a softness of heart— a gift that will always cause you to listen to God now.

my utmost for his highest