Galatians 4:8-20
Be Still: Lord, I give this day – and this moment – to you. Help me turn my attention from life’s distractions and towards you and your presence. (Pause... close your eyes and.... breathe.) Come, lead me, and guide me today. I invite you into the depths of my heart. Amen
Read: Galatians 4:8-20
‘But now that you know God – or rather are known by God – how is it that you are turning back to those weak and miserable forces? Do you wish to be enslaved by them all over again?’ (v4:9)
Encounter: Most evenings at bedtime, my young son Boaz asks me to catch him and tickle him. As a dutiful father, I oblige – but without fail, within moments he’s shouting, ‘Stop! I don’t like it!’ And, I mean, genuinely doesn’t like it. Yet every evening, he comes back for more. Bizarre.
Or is it? Because how often do we, even as grown-ups, return to things we know aren’t good for us? If I’m honest, it’s more often than I’d like to admit. The treat box at home is far too easy to reach for, no matter how many times I tell myself I won’t. Or that next episode on Netflix somehow starts playing, despite me saying out loud how much I need an early night.
It’s human nature. We give in to desires, we choose short-term comfort, we satisfy the flesh, or we allow ourselves to drift towards things that quietly harm us. Sometimes it’s trivial – chocolate or TV. Sometimes it’s deeper, more ingrained patterns we battle with again and again.
Paul’s words here might sound like an accusation, but they’re not. They’re the plea of a pastor who knows the struggle. Paul understands temptation and internal conflict, yet he writes from a place of freedom. His message is one of encouragement and challenge: You know God. You are known by him. You are free.
So why go back?
Apply: What do you regularly turn to that you know you shouldn’t? Could today be the day you choose – by the power of the Spirit and the identity God has given you –to leave it behind?
Devote: Thank you, God, that you have set me free – truly free. Help me live out that freedom today. Break the power of anything that seeks to enslave me, and fill me afresh with your Holy Spirit, that I may walk in freedom.