Galatians Week 9

In Chapter 4 of Galatians Paul is trying again to convince the Galatians that if they would only keep the faith instead of taking matters in their own hands, they would avoid getting themselves into a big mess.  To do this he uses the example of Abraham. God promises him a son…and he starts seeing his hair getting grayer and grayer and he starts questioning if God is going to keep his promise. He starts to say to himself, “in order to bring about God’s promise I’m going to have to start taking matters into my own hands and sleep with another woman.” And he does! I think most of us probably would agree that the best way to bring about God’s abundant life is not to deliberately sin. But in some ways this is what a lot of us do when we are faced with having to wait for blessings. Now, I don’t know what you might be waiting for, but whatever it is, stay strong, have faith, the master is coming for you! Paul makes it very clear in this passage that we are NOT descendants of the slave women that Abraham slept with. We are not members of the “Take Matters in to our own hands” family. We are members of the “God is faithful to fulfill his promise” family. You see the Galatians were not trusting God’s promise and we’re attempting to bring about their own righteousness by choosing to live under the law instead of the freedom of Christ. So this week, let’s be people full of patience and faithfulness that God will fulfill his promise. Let’s not take things back into our own control because it’s not happening as fast as we’d like. After all, if the matters are in God’s hands, that is the best place for them to be!