John 6:63
63 It is the spirit that gives life, while the flesh is of no avail. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and life.
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If I want to live a "life in the spirit," I really need to understand that the flesh is of no avail. Time that I spend chasing matters of the flesh means NOTHING in the economy of God. I need to be fully aware of that in my mind, and I need to consider that as I make choices on how to spend my time. I live "in the world", so there is no avoiding worldly matters, but what I can control is how much importance I put on them, and how much more important it is to follow Christ than to do any of those individual things.
If I want to live a "life in the spirit", I need to keep His words in my mind. That means I need to dive more deeply into the four Gospels. His words -- spirit and life -- are right there for us. I need to spend time in the gospels on a daily basis, and meditate and pray over what I read there. I need to immerse myself in spirit and life, and have His teachings at the top of my brain, so that I actually pay attention to them and obey them on a day-to-day and minute-to-minute basis.
If I want to have a higher relationship with Christ, I need to actually pursue the relationship. Obvious, right? If I want to get to know a person, I need to spend time with that person. Well, Christ IS a person. If I want to know Him better, I need to choose to spend my time in a way that pursues Him.
I need to develop an awareness for His presence. I need to look for Him in my life daily. I need to develop a habit of "consulting" Him throughout the day. I need to let Him be an intimate part of my life. I need to think about what has happened over the course of a day, and where He was present. I need Him to help me understand when I listen to Him, and when I don't. And then I need to ask for His help to correct the problems He shows me.
I'm not much into New Year's resolutions, but this is pretty much my spiritual plan for 2011.
