You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? Before your very eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed as crucified. I would like to learn just one thing from you: Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by believing what you heard? Are you so foolish? After beginning by means of the Spirit, are you now trying to finish by means of the flesh? Have you experienced so much in vain—if it really was in vain? So again I ask, does God give you his Spirit and work miracles among you by the works of the law, or by your believing what you heard? So also Abraham “believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.”

Galatians 3:1-6

Dear God, I get very task-oriented. I lay out my plan for the day. I lay out my activities. I look at the landscape (political, social, personal), determine what is lacking or problematic, and then decide what I must do. I am good at it. But I am a Galatian fool!

What if, just what if, I were to start with worship and then let my actions flow from that? What if I started with my faith in you/Jesus/Holy Spirit and then started to see the world and that “landscape” I mentioned above through your eyes instead of my own? What if I looked at our politics and remembered that there is nothing to fear because you are in control, and I might never see what you are doing in this physical world in my lifetime? What if I applied that same concept to the societal issues and personal issues facing me? What if I let go of my own agenda and just allowed myself to move through the direction I feel from you instead of my own so called wisdom?

Father, right now, I have some work in front of me, and I am the luckiest man in the world because 80% of it is about loving others. I get to write thank you letters to people who sent donations. I get to write update letters to donors to whom our work means a lot. I get to write a flyer to hand out to church members on Sunday to whom I am speaking about our clinic and the work we do with our patients. I get to love, love, love as the work you have for me. Beyond that, I am having lunch with a friend, and I get to sow into his life and allow you to sow into mine through him. I get to love my wife and spend time with her tonight. And if I decided to venture into social media tonight, I have an opportunity to be a source of your love and not divisiveness. None of these things will likely change the problems I think I are important, but they might just move the needle in helping your kingdom to come and your will to be done on earth as it is in heaven. Use me as you will, and I will start by worshipping you.

In Jesus’s name I pray,

Amen