Galatians 5 - 1.18.24
Galatians 5:6, 13, 22
S – Galatians 6: The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love;
Galatians 13: You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh, rather, serve one another humbly in love.
Galatians 22: But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Against such things there is no law.
O – The book of Galatians is the charter of Christian freedom. We are free in Christ! Free from the law and the power of sin; free to serve the Lord, not ourselves. Having laid the foundation, Paul builds his case for Christian liberty. We are saved by faith, not by keeping the law; our freedom means that we are free to love and serve one another, not to do wrong. Christians should carry each other’s burdens and be kind to each other (LOVE one another).
A - I love this chapter soooo much. Last week I was looking ahead to my SOAP posting day and saw that I was assigned this chapter and just smiled at how God works. We are saved through faith and our faith shows up in how much we love others because God IS love.
1John 4:7-8 Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.
Love for others and for God comes out of a response from all God has forgiven us. We might think once saved, loving others should be natural. However, we have two things within us contradicting each other, our sinful nature that we were born with and comes from our fleshly desires, and the Holy Spirit, which was deposited in us at salvation, when we were born again. We cannot rely on our deeds or our own strength to follow the Holy Spirit. If it were that simple, we wouldn’t need God. We must know God and getting to know Him takes time and practice. We can get to know Him by reading His Word, praying, and spending time with Him (abiding in Him). One way to practice and live this out is to join us in our daily SOAP (located at www.desertstreams.com click the tab in the upper right corner, then “Resources & Bible Reading & Journal”). We must learn to rely on Him, love Him and imitate Him. If we are being selfish with our time, observing a friend or even a stranger in need, and doing nothing about it because we are “too busy” (boy I have come to severely dislike that phrase!), if we are not serving in some capacity in ministry, or giving of our tithes, we are not living out God’s love. The freedom God gave us through salvation was never to fulfill our own selfish ambitions and desires, but to walk in the Spirit of love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Gal 5:22).
P – Lord, I pray that you will cause myself and each of us to become more like you this year. Help us to put aside our selfish desires and fill us with the love and desires of your heart so that it IS natural for us to go out and love one another; so we DO commit to acts of selflessness on a regular basis and not to just do a good deed once and month and feel good about ourselves. Let our Spirits permeate with your love and overflow into every single day we get to be on this earth. Help us fight against all those areas that our flesh wants to participate in, immorality, sexual sin, lust, greed, anger, selfishness, idolatry, hatred, jealousy. Let us seek the power of the Holy Spirit to crucify those desires every single day! You are our strength where we are weak. I pray 2024 we make excuses no more! We are new creations in Christ created to love you, to be in relationship with you, and therefore go and love others with the power you have deposited in us. In Jesus’ name I pray! Amen
- Crystal Flory
