Just who is in control here?

If we claim to live by the Holy Spirit, we must also walk by the Spirit with personal integrity, godly character, and moral courage—our conduct empowered by the Holy Spirit. (Galatians 5:25 AMP)

Conduct may not always be the first thing we think about each morning, but if we were smart, we'd ask the Holy Spirit to actually take control of our conduct before we even set feet to the floor. Why? When our day begins under his control, our actions are more likely to reflect the image of Christ. Live by the Spirit and you will not be controlled by the lusts of the flesh or this world - isn't that what scripture teaches? We might not realize just how 'differently' we may act until we act him to 'act through us'.

Walk by the Spirit with personal integrity. Whenever we ask the Holy Spirit to take control of our actions, we are relinquishing our 'right' to be our ultimate authority in life. This may not seem all that significant at first, but the more we relinquish the 'right' to control our actions, the more we will find our actions changing - and for the better! Personal integrity is almost impossible without his help. We might make SOME good or wise choices on our own, but when we give our day into his hands and ask him to take control of our conduct, we make those right choices more frequently.

Godly character and moral courage may not seem all that important until we see ourselves behaving with ungodly responses. We don't want to actually 'own up to' our ungodly behavior all the time, do we? Sometimes we'd rather just sweep it under the rug and hope nobody else noticed just how goofy we were in our activities. We will be 'empowered' by something - either our own lusts and desires, or those brought about because the holiness of God dwells within us, helping us to make the best choices.

We can choose to be in control of our actions - or we can ask the Holy Spirit to take the lead. The choice seems pretty clear, doesn't it? Yet we begin many days without even giving our 'conduct' a second thought, don't we? We just go about life, hoping for different outcomes while doing the same things. Henry Ford reminded us, "If we always do the same things we will always get the same results." Wouldn't it be wiser to have the 'same things' we do be the things that produce the wisest and most godly results in our lives? Just askin...