Friday Reading: Galatians 4 1-7

Key Verse: Galatians 4 7
7  So that you are no longer a slave, but a son; and if a son, also an heir of God through Christ.

Devotion:
What is the youngest ruler, king or queen that you have heard of? There have been some pretty young rulers though most of the time you don’t get to hear about them until they are much older. Some may be born into a position but they are unlikely to have ultimate authority until they are in a position to understand the role they should take. You could look at two young children wearing the same clothes and you probably would not be able to say which one is born into a position of royalty because it is normally the clothes that give them away. How great a ruler that child will grow up to be depends entirely on the surroundings when they grow up.

When we were very young and did not understand our position within society we were very different people to who we are now; we were yet to learn the fullness of the laws that we now accept and live by. When we were young we learned from the world that surrounded us and learned to grow into that world. If we were not in the right surroundings, we would learn things that were not right and probably ended up in trouble! As this passage puts it, we were slaves to our world.

When we come to know Christ we are born into a new world where we will see things differently and where we will have to learn to grow again. We are then freed from the slavery of the world because we know what lies beyond the corruption that we grew up in. God sent Jesus to us because of all the corruption that we have to live in. He wanted us to see that we have an escape route by which we can learn to grow in good surroundings. God wants us to be heirs of His, to be like His own children by accepting His surroundings so that we may grow up in His love and in His care.

Points to Ponder:
What are some of the best memories you have as a young child?
 
Are you willing to grow up with God as your Father?

Thursday Reading: Galatians 3 19-25
 
Key Verse: Galatians 3 24
24  So that the Law has become a trainer of us until Christ, that we might be justified by faith.

Devotion:
How long and hard did you train for the last test or competition that you had? How well did you do in it? Did you think that you could have done more? These are all the sorts of things that we begin to ask ourselves before and after examination times but things that we tend to put away when there are not tests coming our way. We like to think that we do do enough work and we like to think that others will be satisfied with what we do – measuring how much should be done is something that is quite hard to do.

We are very much like that in our walk with Christ because we continue to try and do the right things and never quite know whether we are doing enough. The simple fact is that there is always more that we could do... but we have to find a balance whereby we will achieve as much as possible.

There is no quick and easy fix by which we can find that balance. We have the Law, God’s Word, that teaches us what we should be doing and what we can do; but we still have to work at it to find out what we are capable of doing and how much we are capable of too. God has given us our bibles so that we can learn from them; we are all very different people and we will all live different lives. There is no one set of exact rules that we can all live to because we would all then be the same person. We like to think that once we leave school we can relax because the learning will be over; the fact is that we continue to learn every day of our lives. How much of that learning we choose to hold on to is normally our choice. We all have the same text book to learn from. We all have the same teacher to turn to. We all have the choice as to whether we go to school or continually play truant and never go to classes. We can and will graduate by accepting Christ but we will continue to learn more about Him every day as well.

Points to Ponder:
Do you like learning the truth?

Are you attentive in God’s class?

Wednesday Reading: Galatians 2 15-21
 
Key Verse: Galatians 2 18
18  For if I build again the things which I destroyed, I confirm myself as a transgressor.

Devotion:
At what point do you stop upholding the law? There lies a deep question for which the answer will be entirely different according to whom you are discussing it with... Some people will totally disregard the law because it does not fit in with their lifestyles. Some will make sure that the law stands above all else, including logic it seems. What we need to do is to realise why we have the law and to treat the law as the law and not as God.

The Jews were at the stage where they made sure that the law came before anything and they treated it so zealously that they left God out of their lives because of the law – the exact opposite of what they should be doing. The one thing that Paul reminds us of here that we have to always remember is that we are not justified by the law and not through works of the law. The law is here to show us that we do things wrong. When we see that, we can recognise that we sin. That does not mean that Christ imparts sin on us because we choose to do that ourselves; the law is just showing us where we go wrong. If we continue in the law we are upholding the sin ourselves.

Christ died on the cross so that we could be forgiven for the trespasses that we have committed – we know them because we have the law. The only way that we are going to be forgiven is if we have faith in Christ to forgive us. He has told us that He will. He has shown us He is willing. He died so that we could be forgiven... All we have to do is to have faith that all of that happened for that exact reason. We need to let go of our compulsion to stick with the exact letter of the law and let Christ show us the way to go because that is exactly what He wants to do... We need to let Him show us what we should be doing rather than constantly worrying about what we should not be doing!

Points to Ponder:
How often do you stop yourself breaking the rules?
 
Are you following Christ’s will or your own will?

Tuesday Reading: Matthew 13 3-9
 
Key Verse: Matthew 13 5
5  Some fell on stony places, where they did not have much earth. And they sprang up immediately, because they had no deepness of earth.

Devotion:
If only we could see what lay ahead... How many times have you wished that you could know what was going to happen in the future? Or have you wondered what it would be like to know what lay ahead? I’m sure we have all thought along those lines before but the fact remains that we cannot know what lies ahead of us. We may like to feel in control of everything and may even do a pretty good job of knowing what is likely to happen in many circumstances, but there is always going to be something that you cannot predict!

God is the one who knows what lies ahead for all of us. He is the one that is able to shape our futures in the way that He wants to; but He has given us free will to choose whether we want Him to do that or not. If we are not careful we will end up like the seeds that get sowed onto shallow sand... they will think that everything is in order and start to sprout, only to find out that what they are depending on is not what it seems. We need to be sure that what we depend on is certain and can always be counted on.

There are not many things in life that can always be counted on apart from death. That is not something that we look forward to while we are alive because we can always hope that there are better times ahead. If we are placing our faith and trust in Someone who not only cares but also is able to shape our futures, then we will always have hope. We do need to place our faith in something in life and it may as well be the best! Why try and depend on something that you do not know will be able to always support you. God is here for us and wants us to depend on Him fully.

Points to Ponder:
Do you always get it right?

Are you trusting in the One who does get it right?