Daily Devotional for Friday 15th March
What matters most
You made it! The end of St Paul’s letter to the Galatians.
Looking back over your devotions in Galatians, what major lessons stick in your mind?
How do they compare with Paul’s summary in these verses?
Is there anything you still want to discuss with a friend? Are there any niggling areas that you really could do with ironing out? Do it – Send a message, call someone, speak to someone at church on Sunday.
Here Paul concludes his letter by reminding us why he wrote it in the first place – as a warning to people who were going back to Jewish practices or being tempted to follow them as a way of making themselves right with God.
He reminds us that what counts is our new life in Christ. As 2 Corinthians 5:17 puts it: ‘If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation, the old has gone, the new has come.’ It is the grace and mercy we find in Christ that gives us life, not the rules we keep.
As Paul writes in Chapter 1, verses 3-5: Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for our sins to rescue us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen.
Pause to pray…
Dear Heavenly Father,
As I come before you today, my heart is filled with gratitude for the love you have shown me.
Your word in Galatians reminds me of the precious truth that I am set free through the sacrifice of your Son, Jesus Christ.
Lord, I thank You for the message of grace and peace that Paul shared in Galatians.
It is a message that brings hope to my soul, knowing that I am saved not by my own works, but by Your unmerited grace. Your grace is a gift beyond measure, and I am humbled by your love.
Lord, guard my heart against any false teachings or ideas that may lead me away from the truth found in your word.
Help me to discern what is in alignment with Your will and what is not, always clinging to the unchanging message of salvation through faith in Jesus Christ.
Help me to take inspiration from your word in Galatians and use it to build up and encourage the Christians around me in my church family at St John’s.
Amen.
