READING:
One-year plan: Ecclesiastes 5-8, Galatians 3:27-4:31
Two-year plan: 1 Kings 1, John 3:22-30
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Paul’s concern for the Galatians was deep. They had turned from the gospel Paul had preached to them to a false “gospel” that required people to become Jewish first in order to be a Christian. They had chased error, and it bothered Paul that they had so quickly turned from the truth. At the same time, though, Paul’s love and concern for the Galatians were clear.
Paul feared for them, his being concerned that his labor among them had been in vain. He begged them to walk with God like he did. He agonized over their condition like a mother going through labor to give birth to her children; indeed, it were as if Paul would go through labor again to deliver the Galatians one more time. As one writer put it, “the labor pains he was now experiencing were not the result of external pressures and attacks; they stemmed rather from the inner anguish and exasperation Paul felt because his Galatian converts had been careless with the truth of the gospel.”* This anguish was real.
Such is the reality of ministry at times when people we lead to the Lord struggle and wander. As I’ve written before, sometimes we grieve their condition much more than they do for themselves.
PERSONAL REFLECTION: Have you ever grieved the wandering heart of someone you have ministered to?
DAILY PRAYER: “God, thank You for people who long for us to walk rightly with You.”
TOMORROW’S READINGS:
One-year plan: Ecclesiastes 9-12, Galatians 5-6
Two-year plan: 1 Kings 2, John 3:32-4:8
* George, T. (1994). Galatians (Vol. 30, p. 329). Broadman & Holman Publishers.
