On a flight from London to New York, I was seated next to a nervous passenger. He admitted to me that he felt he was keeping our plane airborne by sheer willpower. He couldn't relax for a moment, for fear that gravity would drag us down.

Even though the law of gravity would keep us earthbound, there's a law of aerodynamics that overcomes the pull of gravity. If this passenger had trusted that principle when he boarded the plane, he would have saved himself a lot of needless worry.

In a similar way, many believers are trying to reach and maintain spiritual heights by sheer willpower. But by ourselves, we're bound to the downward drag of the law of sin and death. However, in Romans 8:2, Paul wrote about a higher law—the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus, which sets people free from the law of sin and death. As we totally entrust ourselves to the living Spirit of Christ within us and maintain an attitude of dependence on Him, we're set free from the law of sin and death.

If you're living by sheer willpower, your Christian life hasn't really "taken off." But the moment you entrust yourself fully to Christ, you're freed from the body of death, and you begin rising on the wings of His Spirit.  — Joanie Yoder