Devotionals for May 3, 2024

Next Refresh Service will be on May 18th! No registration needed, but please sign up your kids HERE if you need childcare. 

Galatians 4:3-7

3 In the same way we also, when we were children, were enslaved to the elementary principles of the world.

4 But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law,

5 to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.

6 And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!”

7 So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God.

This is written for the Christian who is struggling with some specific sin. Maybe it is lust, anger, selfishness, drunkenness, etc. Fill in the blank. Maybe you have become slowly discouraged at your “lack of progress” as a Christian. To you, I say, rejoice. Rejoice that your sin disturbs you. The fact that you describe your tussle with sin as a “struggle” means some part of you, deeper than the part of you that wants to sin, truly desires God. The Spirit is beckoning you to repentance and a new way of living, sure, but He is also, at every moment, trying to tell you that you are loved by your Father. He sees your sin and is not surprised. He is not shaken by it for He has, once and for all, defeated it. You may be in a season of “spiritual limping,” but your Father has not abandoned you, even when you’ve wrapped yourself in the linens of your old death. He loves you. He loves you. He loves you.

Q: What is the significance of the usage of “Abba” in this passage?

Q: Where do you need to orient your heart to believing that you are loved by God?

Q: How can you spread God’s radical love for you to those around you?

"And don’t let us yield to temptation, but rescue us from the evil one."

Oh Lord, help us to flee sin and run into your loving, healing arms. Amen.