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Lent Day 10


Scripture Reading

Galatians 3:6-9


During the Christmas season it has become popular to display the word believe. You can find decorative and trendy pillows that say it, wooden letters that grace the top of your mantle, and even doormats that greet you as you enter the home-BELIEVE. For some it is believing in Santa, for some the spirit of the holiday season, for those who follow Christ, it means the coming of a Messiah. To believe means that your mind and heart have made a decision on what the truth is and your actions enforce this attitude. 


Paul in this passage is asking the Galatians, "What do you believe?" Do you believe God the way Abraham did? Do you believe that your good works and your own effort are earning your righteousness or do you believe that your eternal salvation and inheritance is because of Christ's blood shed for you. The Galatians were foolish in believing that by observing the law, they were attaining righteousness (being made right before God). Paul looks at the life of Abraham as an example of a person who was righteous before God. He was promised that through him, God would bless his people and through this blessing all people-Jews and Gentiles would receive salvation. 


Was Abraham righteous because of what he did, NO! His faith and belief in God made him righteous in God's sight. If we believe in God and his Son then we are children of Abraham. We inherited the blessing of God's love and redemption through Christ not by works, but by believing in God's plan. 


In response to Paul's admonition to the Galatians to believe in God, to have faith in him, rather than our own merit, my heart is moved to shout I Believe! I am eternally grateful that I can stand before God and know that my sins and failures are not seen because he only sees the blood of Christ covering me. 


Prayer: Heavenly Father, thank you for your free gift of salvation that is based on Christ's work and not my own. You are a faithful God, fulfilling all of your promises to Abraham and his descendants. Thank you that through Christ I am able to call myself a descendant of Abraham. Most of all, I thank you that you have called me by name as your child. Amen.

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