GALATIANS 3:14

 He redeemed us in order that the blessing given to Abraham might come to the Gentiles through Christ Jesus, so that by faith we might receive the promise of the Spirit.

TO PONDER 

If you’ve been following the current preaching series, you’ll know that Galatians is a letter from Paul to the new churches in Galatia – which is in current day Türkiye, telling them off, because they’d reintroduced some of the old ways again – ways which had nothing to do with salvation. The old habits can be very helpful, but if they get in the way of the saving message of Jesus, they ought to be disregarded.  

We still do that. We still tend to add human tradition to God’s Law. We could even be accused of letting tradition interfere with hospitality. 

But God is good. Our text reminds us that we are redeemed. We are saved. We are given another shot at it…time and time again. And God continues to bless us, as he’s been doing for a while – and our text tells us he’s been doing it at least 4000 years, and he doesn’t plan on stopping soon. We just need to believe it. We just need to have faith. Sure, easy to say, but sometimes hard to do, because there’s plenty of distractions around that want our attention. 

So when the world is bombarding you with their version of the truth, try and ignore it, and check out what God has to say to you in scripture. Oh, and faith sometimes begins by stuffing your ears with cotton wool! 

PRAYER: Thank you, Lord, for all your gifts you’ve given us, for all the blessings you’ve sent our way, and for the faith you’ve gifted us. We confess we are not so good at thanking you for all of that, so please forgive us. And help us listen to your Word most of all, and to shut-out the unnecessary and unhelpful noise of the world. Amen    

Today's devotion written by Mark Simpfendorfer, LifeWay Epping