Present in the Presence

Part 1: You Are What You Eat

In Galatians 5:15-26 the apostle Paul lays out a clear blueprint of what it looks like to be a follower of Jesus and what it looks like to live in the presence of God. Paul reveals to the readers that what we eat matters, the saying we’ve heard time and time again… “we become what we eat” is a very real reality for a follower of Jesus.

As Paul is speaking to the Galatians he introduces a tension between the flesh and the fruit that we also see in Genesis 3 when the serpent tempted Eve. The enemy was crafty as he deceived Eve, as she was once content with obeying Gods instructions about what she should and should not consume. When she ate the forbidden fruit, her life changed but not in the way God intended for it to change. The forbidden fruit that Eve ate wasn’t anywhere close to fruit God had in store for her.

The good news that Paul delivers to us in Galatians is that through Jesus we get the choice to consume the fruit God intended for us. What God offers us is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self in control instead of the temporary fleshy fruit of lust, greed, irritability, hatred and any other freshly temptation. His desire is to fill us up with all that He is.

When Jesus died, rose from the grave and ascended into heaven He left us an advocate, His Holy Spirit and through the Spirit, Jesus is alive inside of us giving us access to all that He is. Gods desire is for us to live in the presence of God and receive the fruit of the Spirit, but it doesn’t stop there. He has called us to grow to others what He has grown in us. God wants for us and everyone around us to experience His love and the fruit of His love.