Do You Have A
Spiritual Friend?
Good Morning Friends,
Sometimes we are called accountability partners but that puts the focus on sin, not the experience of the sin, and its forgiveness, so it is more than that. The power comes from realizing that we can be a witness to Christ carrying the spiritual burden and us carrying the physical one, but that the emotional one, our responsibility to God on the Day of Judgment, we each must carry alone. Friends, there is much fruit to be gleaned from obedience to the task of loving one another. Do You Have A
Spiritual Friend?
Scripture: My friends, if anyone is detected in a transgression, you who have received the Spirit should restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness. Take care that you yourselves are not tempted. Bear one another’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ. For if those who are nothing think they are something, they deceive themselves. All must test their own work; then that work, rather than their neighbor’s work, will become a cause for pride. For all must carry their own loads.
Galatians 6:1-5 (NRSV)
Message: Some things we are to do alone and some things we were meant not to do on our own. Some things are just too heavy to carry alone. That is why placing legalistic burdens on others is dramatically opposed to building up a spirit of humility and unity and brotherly love in a community. It is really sad that those who point the finger also fail themselves. I guess that they just don’t see and experience the connection between our mind, spirit and body and the body of believers. When we are caught in the act, spiritual friends are to help restore us. Here we discover that the heaviest burden to bear is the test of love. Here we discover that gentleness in confrontation is critical. Friends, when it comes to sin we cannot be indifferent…we cannot condone that which is wrong… but if we are to be involved in the solution we need to know that it requires a certain spiritual maturity that knows that only by the grace of God we each might be trapped in the very same sin. Friends we are all in need of restoration, so bear one another’s burdens as you are able and thus fulfill the law of Christ. Spiritual friends love because God first loved us. Friends, it is our duty to minister to one another in the love of Christ. It is our duty to never exploit the sinner by competition and comparison, but if we are to be successful our faith must have matured.
Pray we live by the Spirit but also walk in the Spirit. Pray that if we are saved we act like it. Pray we not fall to gossip, destructive criticism, judging, gloating and self-righteousness. Pray we return to spiritual health. Pray we acknowledge our own sins… Pray we realize that the mender of souls must be meek, gentle and enduring all things with a tender spirit. Pray we understand the nature of spiritual battles. Pray we rejoice in the reality of grace. Pray we not be tempted. Pray we believe that Christ took our burden of sin and carried it to the cross. Pray we love as Christ loved us. Pray we pray for other’s faith even as we rejoice in our own. Pray we bear burdens but also share blessings. Pray we never condemn the sinner in an effort to make ourselves look good. Pray we have the right attitude. Pray we realize that some burdens are too heavy for one person to bear alone.
Blessings,
John Lawson
Daily Devotionals 