1 You crazy Galatians! Did someone put a hex on you? Have you taken leave of your senses? Something crazy has happened, for it's obvious that you no longer have the crucified Jesus in clear focus in your lives. His sacrifice on the cross was certainly set before you clearly enough.Are you like me? Do you sometimes try to earn your keep with God? Do you try and barter good works for forgiveness? I do. I think it's normal to do so. But that doesn't mean it's right. It's just that it is what we see around us. As a human, we know that nothing is free and many times we try to use that thought process with God. We say that it just can't be that easy. There must be something more to this forgiveness thing. There must be some small print somewhere that I haven't read yet. But you know what...there's not.
2-4Let me put this question to you: How did your new life begin? Was it by working your heads off to please God? Or was it by responding to God's Message to you? Are you going to continue this craziness? For only crazy people would think they could complete by their own efforts what was begun by God. If you weren't smart enough or strong enough to begin it, how do you suppose you could perfect it? Did you go through this whole painful learning process for nothing? It is not yet a total loss, but it certainly will be if you keep this up! (Galatians 3:1-4 - The Message)
And that is really hard for me because I like to fix things (if you don't believe me just ask my wife.) When a problem comes up, my first instinct is to come up with a solution and solve it. So I try to do for God as well. I try to do good deeds to make up for my failures. And I have to constantly remind myself that my doing does not make me anymore attractive to God.
It's hard...I struggle with it...but I want to spend my time working because of the joy that is in my heart and not from a sense of deficit. How 'bout you? Where do you see yourself? Comment and let us know.
Dream Big...Pray Bigger!
Will
Ahhh...I am a "doer" as well. I dont think my situation is exactly the same as yours but it made me think about this: Mostly I feel like if Im not physically "doing" something then Im not getting anything done. If Im not solving a problem, its easy for me to feel helpless and worthless. I learned that with that kind of attitude came the danger of taking too much on, which can then lead to my heart taking on a bad attitude because of "all I have to do". Aha. What a cycle. I had to learn that God didnt need me to do everything and that sometimes all he wanted me to "do" was pray and back away. Its still a struggle sometimes. A couple years back I attended a leadership conference at a church in TX. In a prophetic prayer meeting, I recieved a word from the Lord about just that. It was about the whole Mary and Martha mentality. It was basically saying that I was recieving the "Mary Spirit" and a merry heart doeth good like a medicine. I needed to sit down, relax, and learn that true JOY comes from the Lord...while you sit at His feet and worship Him. I had to learn, all over again (for the first time) how to have and keep great Joy of the Lord while "doing" all that i did.
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