Category Archives: Galatians

Brethren, even if anyone is caught in any trespass, you who are spiritual, restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness; each one looking to yourself, so that you too will not be tempted. Bear one another’s burdens, and thereby fulfill the law of Christ. For if anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself.

Galatians 6:1-3

Dear God, the verse of the day was verse 2: “Bear one another’s burdens, and thereby fulfill the law of Christ.” But it’s another one that can be completely taken out of context. Verses 1 and 3 totally change the meaning of it. It’s one thing to think of my friend facing a partial leg amputation and how I might help to bear his burden. It’s a completely different thing to think about the person I’ve seen do a lot of wrong to others as well as to myself and think about how I might bear his burdens.

For privacy’s sake, I won’t get too specific about this, but it’s probably something I need to think about. For the ma I am particularly thinking about, what does bearing his burden look like? As I sit here and think about it, I think it starts with caring about his restoration and being willing to expose myself to him even though he is really angry with me. I don’t know. This is a really tricky one. In this case, because of complicating factors, I just don’t know that I am the person for the job on this one. I see that he needs to be approached, but I can also see that there is too much baggage with me for him to be able to hear anything I would have to say I just don’t think I am a voice he can hear.

This passage does, however, make me wonder how many others there are in my sphere that I need to think about bearing their burden and helping them. I wonder what/who Paul was thinking of when he wrote these words. What was the situation? How as it resolved?

Father, I do want to pray for a couple of things today. There are actually three on my heart. On the biggest level, I want to pray about the election. I know there was a debate last night, although I didn’t watch it. I’ve even done my best to stay away from the news this week. But I know that certainly something is happening in our country–and it’s even greater than who wins the election. People are angry and distrustful of one another. Satan is attacking our unity and it is working. Please guide us as a nation. Show us your path forwards. I don’t know how far down you will have to break us to bring us to unity again. The answer to that question scares me. But please help us. Then I’d like to pray for the people in the fires in California and Colorado. Home are being evacuated. Businesses destroyed. Please be sovereign in all of these situations. Provide for the firefighters and first responders. Keep them safe. Take care of the wildlife involved. And then I pray for my friend who might lose part of his leg. I pray against the infection in his leg. I know he is widowed and lives alone. Provide for him. But please spare is leg if you can. He is such a nice man. Everything I know about his is lovely. Please be a great and powerful God to him. And I guess I have one more. For the family about whom I’m thinking that needs some financial help while they face a health crisis. Please help them and love them. Show my wife and me what role you have for us to play in their lives.

In Jesus’s name I pray,

Amen

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

I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that the gospel I preached is not of human origin. I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it; rather, I received it by revelation from Jesus Christ. For you have heard of my previous way of life in Judaism, how intensely I persecuted the church of God and tried to destroy it. I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my own age among my people and was extremely zealous for the traditions of my fathers. But when God, who set me apart from my mother’s womb and called me by his grace, was pleased to reveal his Son in me so that I might preach him among the Gentiles, my immediate response was not to consult any human being. I did not go up to Jerusalem to see those who were apostles before I was, but I went into Arabia. Later I returned to Damascus. Then after three years, I went up to Jerusalem to get acquainted with Cephas and stayed with him fifteen days. I saw none of the other apostles—only James, the Lord’s brother. I assure you before God that what I am writing you is no lie. Then I went to Syria and Cilicia. I was personally unknown to the churches of Judea that are in Christ. They only heard the report: “The man who formerly persecuted us is now preaching the faith he once tried to destroy.” And they praised God because of me.

Galatians 1:11-24

Dear God, I’m not sure I’ve ever spent much time with this passage or the idea that Paul wasn’t really taught his theology by the apostles or other disciples, but had direct revelation from you. I really do wonder how much of my theology is tainted by the teaching of others. I wonder if I should spend more time just silently with you. Even when I exercise–no music, podcasts, or videos. What if I just allowed silence and tried to meditate on you?

I talked on the phone with a pastor friend today. I call him a friend, but I don’t really know him that well. But I called to ask him about something and he asked how I am doing. I told him honestly about a couple of struggles we are experiencing after losing my wife’s father a few weeks ago, and he prayed the most beautiful prayer for my wife and me over the phone. I know I’ve felt that way before. I know I’ve prayed that way before. I just don’t feel that close connection with you now. I know that emotions ebb and flow, and I can’t always be on a spiritual high or 100% tuned into you, but I pretty sure I can be better than I’ve been.

Father, I’m sorry I’ve let self-righteousness, bitterness, and judgmental-ness infiltrate my heart. I’m sorry for any way in which I’ve not been what you need me to be for my wife or anyone else. Help me to be a complete source of love for everyone I know or who touches my life. Family. Friends. Patients. Volunteers. Coworkers. Donors. My community. I don’t need to be right. I don’t need to be better than anyone else. I just need to be your vessel, messenger, and ambassador. Help me to be all of those things for your glory’s sake.

In Jesus’s name I pray,

Amen

As for me, may I never boast about anything except the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Because of that cross, my interest in this world has been crucified, and the world’s interest in me has also died. It doesn’t matter whether we have been circumcised or not. What counts is whether we have been transformed into a new creation. May God’s peace and mercy be upon all who live by this principle; they are the new people of God. From now on, don’t let anyone trouble me with these things. For I bear on my body the scars that show I belong to Jesus. Dear brothers and sisters, may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. Amen.

Galatians 6:14-18

Dear God, there is so much debate still, even in my own heart, about what a “new creation” is supposed to look like. Should it be good enough for me that a person is pursuing you in worship even if they have, what I consider to be, obvious sin in their life, or should I see a sinless “new creation?” I suppose the answer to that question is the former because no one is sinless. We are all working out our faith with fear and trembling. I’m typing this at 7:37 in the morning, and I have already sinned today. I’m sorry for that, by the way. I’m sorry for allowing sinful thoughts and even words to gather and come out of me. I’m sorry.

So I suppose that loving others, Christians and non-Christians alike, should be what I lead with. If I can love those who disagree with me politically, socially, religiously, or even in interpersonal matters, then I can know the peace and mercy that Paul references to the Galatians here. But if I decide that I need to judge others for how they are failing in thought, word, or deed, then I will not experience that need. To be sure, I shouldn’t just ignore the sin in my life. And I should judiciously talk with others about sin, but only in times when you have given me a legitimate voice in their life and a divine appointment to do it. I’m pretty sure that time is never on social media or even in writing.

Father, help me to look beyond “circumcision” and all of the modern ways we apply the concept of judging the wrong thing. Help me to know how to be your representative to every person with whom I come into contact, and bring your Kingdom and will into the earth through me and your church. You know, beyond that, do it through whomever you please. Your Kingdom come and your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

In Jesus’s name I pray,

Amen

Share each other’s burdens, and in this way obey the law of Christ. If you think you are too important to help someone, you are only fooling yourself. You are not that important.
Galatians 6:2-3

Dear God, the actual verse of the day was the first half about sharing burdens. And that was nice. It’s a nice thought that I want to sit with. But when I read on, I just loved the end of verse 3: “You are not that important.”

After I read that, I wanted to see how the King James Version and a couple of others handled that translation. Here’s what I found:

For if a man think himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceiveth himself.
Galatians 6:3 KJV

For if anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself.
Galatians 6:3 NASB

If anyone thinks they are something when they are not, they deceive themselves.
Galatians 6:3 NIV

It’s interesting that the other three use the word “deceive” and that the NLT add the declarative, “You are not that important,” at the end. I don’t know. Perhaps I’ve chased a pointless rabbit here, but it’s also a reminder that the translation I read can certainly make subtle differences in how I myself interpret your Word.

That being said, it’s time to think about helping others. I’ll confess to you that I’m pretty helpful, but I’ve definitely drawn lines. I was talking to a friend yesterday morning about something she is willing to do to serve others through Rotary that I’m not willing to do. It would be too much of an inconvenience for me. Not that you call me to do everything. I can’t. That’s why you made us part of the body. We all have our own gifts and our own calls. It’s just that I probably need to be sure that I’m willing to hear and respond to your still small voice instead of drawing lines in the sand that predetermine what I’m willing to do and not willing to do.

In that spirit, I also need to not judge others when they aren’t called to do what I do. I need to give the grace to follow the path that you have for them and then to figure out their own resistance to you without putting my own values or even “call” onto them.

Father, when it comes down to it, I just need to live you with all my heart, soul, and strength and then love my neighbor as myself. Those are, after all, the greatest commandments. Show me how to do that today.

In Jesus’s name I pray,

Amen