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Galatians 2:11-14; John 14 and 15 -- Audio file is at the end of this text.
How is it that we dare to ask God to listen to us? How is it that we dare to pray for help, for guidance, or for peace in our hearts? Who deserves to talk to God? Who can ask God for help and receive it? We come boldly because we believe that the Bible is God's word and in it God makes it perfectly clear that he made each of us, he loves each of us and he expects each of us to depend upon him.
Galatians 2:11-14; John 14 and 15 -- Audio file is at the end of this text.
How is it that we dare to ask God to listen to us? How is it that we dare to pray for help, for guidance, or for peace in our hearts? Who deserves to talk to God? Who can ask God for help and receive it? We come boldly because we believe that the Bible is God's word and in it God makes it perfectly clear that he made each of us, he loves each of us and he expects each of us to depend upon him.
God's
first formal set of instructions came in the form of The Ten
Commandants. Our ancestors were never able to live up to what
are still the rules that will guarantee a good life. The only
problem with rules is not one person who has ever lived has been able
to live up to them. The "fall" resulted in our cursed
lives, but, God loves us so much that he gave us a new way to realize
our potential. He gave us a new way to come to him boldly and without
shame.
In
Galatians 3:11-14 we read, "Clearly no one who relies on the law
is justified before God, because, 'the righteous will live by faith.'
The law is not based on faith; on the contrary, it says, 'The person
who does these things will live by them.' christ redeemed us from the
curse of thelaw by becoming a curse for us, for it is written:
'Cursed is everyone who is hung on a pole.' He redeemed us in order
that the blessing given to Abraham might come to the Gentiles through
Christ Jesus, so that by faith we might receive the promise of the
Spirit.
This
means that we can't please God by only being a good person. We can't
get God's attention by doing works and comparing ourselves to other
people and saying to God and to ourselves, “Well I am better than
that person because I do more good for my neighbors than he does.”
Forget that strategy as you will always fall short.
When
Paul was writing to the Galatian churches he was reminding them that
while the rabbis were demanding more from them, God was only
demanding faith. Paul is saying here that the curse of the law was
finished, retired, and made obsolete by Jesus' death on the cross.
Jesus' life, teaching, cruel and bloody death followed by his
resurrection is what saves us.
All
God wants is our trust in him. All God wants is our total faith that
he not only made us, he has saved us from ourselves. He made us all
his sons through the sacrifice of Jesus and thus we stand amazed in
the presence of God knowing that he hears us.
How
do we go to God? How do we live? We live by faith. We live by
trusting that God, our creator, will keep his promises to each of us.
Then how do you know that you are trusting God for every detail of
your life? You will have the “peace that passes all
understanding.”
