Author: Megan Langan

Re:Verse passage – Galatians 5:16-26 (day four)

My favorite attraction at water parks is the lazy river. There’s something blissful about sitting back and letting the current send you slowly drifting down the stream. Sometimes the river is so lazy that you’re hardly aware it’s moving you, until you look up and realize you’ve gone further than you thought. This is all well and good on vacation, but when the same thing happens to us spiritually, it’s a very different story. The natural flow of life does not lead toward righteousness. There are times when life is busy or we’re distracted by the things of the world, and we find ourselves in the lazy river, slowly drifting towards unrighteousness without even realizing it.

At first we may think, “well, it’s not so bad, I haven’t drifted that far.” Soon, though, we look up and realize we’ve slowly gone a lot further than we thought, and this depiction of fleshly deeds is starting to sound a lot like us. It may not be all at once, but the rhythms of the world will always lead to a life of destruction.

But when we begin catching the rhythms of the Spirit, things start to look different. When we encounter the Holy Spirit, God lifts us up out of our lazy drift and sets our feet on solid ground, leading us into all truth. As we walk in that truth we begin to see the fruit of the Spirit ripen in us. This leads us to the question, then – how do we keep in rhythm with the Spirit? What practices help you walk by the Spirit rather than drifting into the rhythms of the world? Is there a new spiritual discipline you’d like to try as you continue to see fruit grow in your life?

That lazy river may seem appealing now, but the fruit of the Spirit is too sweet to miss.

Re:Verse passage – Galatians 5:1-15 (day four)

Paul has made it clear throughout this letter to the Galatians: Christ brings freedom. Subjugation to anything else will inevitably bring us back under the yoke of slavery. Now, though, we get a picture of what this freedom is meant to look like.

This message of freedom doesn’t promote the post-modern idea that “anything goes” and that we all ought to “pursue our own truth.” It isn’t a license to do or believe whatever we want. Rather, this freedom from Christ allows us to live in such a way that we can love one another with the very love of God. The freedom that Christ offers isn’t just an absence of shackles, it is the presence of divine grace. It is a perfect freedom.

The certifiable stamp of real freedom, then, is love. When we love our neighbor as ourselves, we are living in true freedom. The only yoke worth submitting to is that of Christ, because mysteriously, it is under this yoke that we experience perfect freedom.

Re:Verse passage – Galatians 4:21-31 (day four)

When we think of Biblical lessons that teach us about courage, we often think of the Israelite army going into battle, or David facing Goliath, or even the prophets speaking out against the sins of Israel. But often, being courageous simply means staying steadfast and waiting on the Lord. Waiting on God’s timing is an act of immense courage.

Abraham received a promise from God that he would have a child in his old age, but he tried to bring it to fulfillment in his own power and his own timing. To be fair, the promise God gave to Abraham didn’t make logical sense – he and Sarah were well passed child-bearing years. But that’s part of what makes faith an act of courage – it defies logic.

We have all attempted to rush-order the fulfillment of a promise we received from God. And just like Abraham, we’ve seen the consequences that come with our lack of patience. When Abraham chose to take matters into his own hands, it caused grief for Hagar, Ishmael, and for Abraham. There are always consequences on the other side of disobedience. Thankfully, despite our disobedience, the promises of God will never return void.

We can have courage to wait on the Lord because we know that his Word is good. Sometimes the most courageous thing to do is to be still.

Re:Verse passage – Galatians 4:12-20 (day four)

“So have I become your enemy by telling you the truth?”

As a child going through school, I used to loathe when the teacher would arrange a debate. This was partly because I tend to be conflict-avoidant, but mainly because I would always leave the debate feeling dumb or gullible. I would hear the arguments of one side, and think to myself, “Well, that makes sense. I agree with this team.” But then the other side would present their case, and I would think to myself, “Well…they make some good points. Maybe I agree with them now.” My views would change in a moment and I would leave feeling confused. The debate teams trying to convince me of their way of thinking began to feel like my enemies.

It wasn’t until I was an adult that I realized this wasn’t a matter of intelligence, but of patience and steadfastness, and a grounding in God’s Word. I learned that rather than getting sweet-talked into the latest way of thinking, I could take the time to sit with the Holy Spirit and hold arguments and new ideas up to the light of Scripture. As the Word of God began to take root in me, I began to feel less anxious about determining my beliefs, and more confident that the Spirit would guide me into truth.

The Galatians accepted the truth of Christ, but they were still young in their faith. A different truth claim was presented to them, and they were swept away by it in a moment. In their confusion, the Biblical truth that Paul presented to them now felt harsh, like it was coming from an enemy. If we have witnessed the truth of Christ, may we let it settle in out hearts. Let’s learn from the Galatians so that when the wind and the waves come, or in this case, the arguments and debates, we will have a firm foundation on which to stand.

 

Re:Verse passage – Galatians 4:1-11 (day four)

It’s easy to remember the past with rose-colored glasses. The troubles of today make the hardships of the past not seem so bad. We see this in the Israelites when they’re journeying through the wilderness and in want of food. They complain to Moses, “It would have been better for us to remain enslaved in Egypt than die here in the wilderness!” Of course, it would not have been better for them back in Egypt. Their present troubles were clouding their judgement. Of course, they found a way to spiritually enslave themselves again through their sin.

Paul is accusing the Galatians of the very same thing. They grew up enslaved to pagan traditions, not Jewish law. But the law was in their midst now, and it was tempting to them. It was drawing them back into a life of servitude. Paul insinuates that adopting the law now would be akin to returning to paganism, the very thing that held them captive before. When we let the law do anything other than point us to Christ, we become enslaved to it. We could ask of the Galatians, “Why would you want to do that? Why would you want to give up your newfound freedom?” But we don’t have to, because we fall victim to this same pattern.

What is it about our flesh that draws us to these things that harm us? Paul will expound on that more in the next chapter, but let this serve as a checkpoint for us: what things of this world, things of our past, worldly ideologies, or pet sins do we see with rose-colored glasses? Let’s take those glasses off, see things for what they are, and hold on to our freedom in Christ.

Re:Verse passage – Galatians 3:15-29 (day four)

We often say that you shouldn’t trust something until it’s in writing. Only then can you put any stock in it, and stand on it as truth. That’s because our promises as sinful men are pretty flimsy. We say “I promise, I’ll call you when I get home,” and then forget as soon as we walk through the door. Or we say “I’ll take care of that tomorrow, I promise,” but a week goes by and you still haven’t tended to it. The word ‘promise’ doesn’t mean much when it’s coming from us, because a promise is only as sure as the person giving it. A law sounds much more sure to us than a promise.

But Paul is reminding us that the Kingdom of God, once again, is different. God granted Abraham an inheritance by means of a promise. The law was only meant to point us towards the one in whom that promise would be fulfilled. In our sin, though, we took the law and put all our stock in it, thinking it was surely a firmer foundation than a promise. But all this means is that we have gravely misunderstood the one giving us this promise.

Life with God is a life built on promises. I wonder if that’s why we so quickly run back to our old ways of living – building a life on the promises of God alone takes a huge amount of faith, especially in the world we live in. But here is our assurance – God is infinitely more likely to raise someone from the dead than to go back on his promise. He has already made it so. His promises are sure.

Re:Verse passage – Galatians 3:1-14 (day four)

Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?

I am great at starting things. I get excited about a new project or idea, and I spend time putting in the research, finding the right resources, and making a plan. These efforts normally get me about a third of the way through it, but then things seem to stall or fall apart. I get distracted with other ideas spurred on by the current project, I get discouraged by an unforeseen obstacle, or I lose sight of why I started this project in the first place and the work is no longer joyful.

Again, I am great at starting things. But when left to my own devices, I am terrible at finishing them. This happens in our faith, too. When we have an encounter with Jesus, we become so full of joy in the Spirit that we press forward with energy and hope, looking for how the Spirit is moving. Over time though, we might get distracted. We lose sight of what this gospel work is all about. We take into our own hands what was meant to be carried by Jesus and we pollute the gospel message with our own pride, just like the Galatians. What Christ began through the Spirit, we try to complete in the flesh.

The good news, though, is that this isn’t a lesson in learning to finish what we start, but rather humbly letting the one who started a good work in us bring it to completion in Christ Jesus. All that is required is faith. Faith like Abraham, the one by whom God’s promises were given to us. May we find renewed joy in surrendering to the Spirit.

Re:Verse passage – Galatians 2:11-21 (day four)

There are times in life when we experience a profound grief that makes everything feel different. We go through our day and find ourselves confused when everyone else isn’t feeling the same way we are. The world carries on like normal, but our inner world has completely changed, and we don’t quite know how to proceed. This can happen with joyous moments as well – an exciting life event consumes our attention, and we can’t make sense of the person walking around frowning. Our inner world has changed, yet the outer world stays the same.

The same phenomenon occurs with salvation, too. When we accept Jesus and are saved by grace, we become a new creation and our whole inner world changes. The outer world, though, stays eerily the same. The world carries on with its difficulties, sin, and biases, and we have to figure out how to proceed now that our inner and outer worlds aren’t in sync anymore.

This seems to be what Peter was experiencing here. His inner world had been changed by Christ and he was continuously learning what this profound gospel freedom looked like, when he was suddenly confronted by characters in the outer world with their laws and expectations. He didn’t know what to do, and ended up bending to their way. We’ve all experienced that pang of regret that comes when we bend to the ways of the world.

There will always be such friction on this side of heaven, but when we make Christ our greatest pursuit, the things of the world will continue to grow dim, and we’ll be able to say with growing confidence, “It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me.”

Re:Verse passage – Galatians 2:1-10 (day four)

This account of church life isn’t as rose-colored as Acts 2 is it? I’d be willing to bet that everyone in that room had an ego to lay down and personality differences to work through. They had to grapple with big, weighty questions, all while defending the gospel, which was still fairly new to them, from those trying to destroy it.

Life in the church is beautiful, but it is also hard. We’re all working out our salvation together, and that can get messy. In particularly hard moments, we might be tempted to think that it’s easier to go it alone. But there can be no lone wolf in gospel ministry. But what Paul knew, and what we must remember, is that the church is essential. Paul probably had his opinions about this group he met with, but he knew that unity among the body of Christ was the only way forward.

Participating in the gathered church is part of how we keep hold of this freedom the gospel provides us. When we’re called to a life with Christ, we’re called to his church. And when Christ, the good shepherd, is leading his church, we can have every confidence in it. Even when things get messy.

Re:Verse passage – Galatians 1:11-24 (day four)

He who once persecuted us is now preaching the faith which he once tried to destroy.

We most often notice God’s sovereignty when we’re out in creation, considering how he cares for the birds and the flowers, or when some sort of catastrophe is avoided, and we thank him for his protection. Paul shows us here, though, that we come face to face with the sovereignty of God every day when we interact with each other.

Paul had his whole life turned around by the revolutionary power of the gospel of Christ. And when he looks back, he sees that God was with him from the beginning – even in his mother’s womb, even when he was trying to destroy the Christian church – with a calling to bring the gospel to all the world. The power of the gospel in Paul’s life is the sovereignty of God on display.

When the people spoke with awe about the difference they saw in him, they were testifying to the power of God. He can and will use anyone he chooses to accomplish his purposes on the earth. That same sovereignty is revealed in us, too. When the redeemed of the Lord say so, we testify to his sovereign power. And when we think someone is too far gone, Paul reminds us that with God, nothing is impossible.