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In the fifth chapter of the book of Galatians, Paul keeps on reminding the Galatians that they have been saved and do not need to live by the yoke of slavery anymore (Galatians 5:1). The Galatians used to follow Christ but other teachings made them obey other rules and they found themselves far from Jesus (Galatians 5:7).

⁶ For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love. (Galatians 5:6)

In Jesus’ eyes, the only thing that is of importance is our faith in Him. However, that faith is shown through love. You cannot have faith in Christ and not love your neighbor since God Himself is love (John 4:8). To know God should be equal to loving one another.

¹³ You, my brothers, and sisters were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love. ¹⁴ For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself”. (Galatians 5: 13-14)

God asks us to love others as we love ourselves. This has been very challenging for me but I thank God that I am not where I used to be. In order to make some changes in my life, I had to analyze my self-love since Jesus asks us to love others as ourselves. Realizing how much I wasn’t loving myself as I should, I decided to work on my self-love by reminding myself what God says I am and learning to love my physical imperfections. I learned to embrace my mistakes and lean on God as I know that I cannot achieve anything without Him.

I decided to celebrate my achievements and not wait on anyone to tell me how much I am doing a good job raising beautiful kids, working a full-time job, going to school, and serving God. I DECIDED to do all of that for God’s glory. I understood that I was created in God’s image which is why I should love every part of me since this is how God looks like. I decided to love myself since God loved me first; who am I to not love who the creator of the universe formed with His own hands?! I want you to understand that this was a decision that I did not achieve by my own strength but by God’s strength since I had to surrender myself to Him. He was the one working on me, molding me into who He wants me to be.

¹⁶ So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. ¹⁷ For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other so that you are not to do whatever you want. ¹⁸ But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. (Galatians 5:16-18)

Jesus gave us free will but we shouldn’t use that freedom in living by the flesh because the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit. To live a godly life, I invite you all to surrender ourselves to God, to kill our flesh, and live by the Spirit as only the Spirit knows God’s desires for our lives. Galatians 5: 19 to 21 tell us about the acts of flesh but let me focus more on the fruit of the Spirit since we are called to have them in our lives.

²² But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentlenesses, and self-control. Against such things, there is no law. (Galatians 5: 22-23)

The above verse is one of the verses I love most in the Bible. If you live with someone or regularly take part in a certain group of people, you find yourself behaving like them at some point without even realizing it. Likewise, in order to have the fruit of the Spirit in us we need to spend time in the presence of God regularly. It is as simple as that. We will be able to love more because God is love (1 john 4:8), we will experience the peace that transcends all understanding (Philippians 4:7), and His joy will fill our hearts because in His presence there is fullness of joy (Psalm 16:11), He will make us great in gentleness as a nursing mother taking care of her own children (1 Thessalonians 2:7), we will become patients and good towards one another and we will develop self-control that prevents us to obey the flesh. WE WILL BECOME LIKE JESUS when being in His presence regularly.

Prayer: Father God, I thank you for loving me unconditionally. I thank you for your word that guides me every day. I thank you for allowing me to be in your presence every second I need it since you live in me. Help me to live like Jesus, help me to be a good ambassador of Christ in this world. Help me to be the living evidence of your existence, help me to live by the Spirit and not by the flesh. Remind me to always come into your presence because I know that is where I will be like you Jesus and live the abundant life You want me to live as Your word says that You came to give me life abundantly (John 10:10). In Jesus name I pray, Amen.