What Kind of Relationship Do You Have with God?

Daily Reading: Galatians 1

But when he who had set me apart before I was born, and who called me by his grace, was pleased to reveal his Son to me, in order that I might preach him among the Gentiles, I did not immediately consult with anyone. (Galatians 1.15-16)

Devotional Thought: What kind of relationship do you have with God?  In Galatians 1, Paul said his was an extremely personal relationship.  He did not know Christ through The Law; he did not know Christ through an intermediary; he did not know Christ through the observation of forms and rituals.  He knew Christ because God revealed him.  It was indeed intensely personal.  It was not a borrowed faith, not an inherited faith, not a man-made faith.  The same needs to be so for each one of us.

Some interpret and distort Galatians to be a manifesto against The Law.  It is not.  It is about serving Christ under a new law, the law of love. 

It is not that The Law is unimportant.  It leads us to Christ and reveals the depths and details of this God-man we follow.  It is not that we don’t learn more about our faith through human teachers.  Paul, after all, was a teacher and preacher of the gospel to others.  He knew how important human agency was!  It’s not that our forms and rituals are empty and meaningless.  Our acts of worship encourage our spirits to enter into places of listening and learning.  They symbolize deep truths of our faith.  But above Law, above human teaching, above rites and ceremonies… we must have a personal, living faith in a personal and living Savior!

God has set you apart from the very beginning of your life.  He has called you by his grace.  He has revealed his Son to you.  All this personal attention is so that you can have a personal relationship with him, lived out in an indispensable community called the Church.  Then, you are able to “preach him among the Gentiles” - to share him from personal knowledge and experience.

Prayer: Thank you, Father, for calling me, setting me apart, and revealing your Son to me.  Help me to share your love with others that they too may hear your call.  Amen.

Psalm of the Day: Psalm 100:1-5

1 Shout for joy to the LORD, all the earth.

2 Worship the LORD with gladness; come before him with joyful songs.

3 Know that the LORD is God. It is he who made us, and we are his ; we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.

4 Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name.

5 For the LORD is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations.