~ written by Connie Dunmyer
About a week before Thanksgiving, our U.S. Transportation Secretary made a plea of sorts to travelers. Since it was expected to be a high travel time, with packed airports, and oh so many impatient travelers, he was asking people to pay attention to their own internal and external thoughts and actions.
I'm not quoting, but his comments included the idea that the way we act towards others, even the way we dress, affects how we ourselves will be treated by others. And so if we travelers would all just treat others how we’d like to be treated and perhaps even dress for success – that our travel experience might just be a bit better.
One of the pet peeves bandied about on various news stations was how so many young people just roll out of bed and show up to airports in their pajamas. And let’s face it, that is just one sign of disrespect.
1 What I am saying is that as long as an heir is a child, he is no different from a slave, although he owns the whole estate. ~ Galatians 4:1
Paul is speaking to the church people in Galatia who have been “bewitched” (vs 3:1) into trading grace for rules, regulations and traditions. For turning away from their first-love. For allowing pride to give them the appearance of controlling their own destiny, rather than truly trusting God for it.
This verse slapped me across the face last week. I read it the day after I'd had a pretty bad day in my spirit. The good news is, I knew what I needed to do – run to Jesus. The bad news is, I avoided Him for a full day. I have no idea why, but I allowed my thoughts and emotions to wallow in the muck and mire splashed upon me by the devil himself.
Thus, some days I still live as “a child”, rather than "an heir". I seemingly learn great truths, but don’t always know how to put them into practice. To live them out. My ‘immaturity’ is less about longing for the law, and more about ignoring the Spirit. I am childish. I am weak.
As long as I act like a child – I am no more than a slave. Not so much a slave to the law or to rules – but perhaps at times, to sin itself. To the sin of pride in my own strength.
“It is God’s strength, no ours, that enables us to persevere. But we lay hold of His strength through faith.” ~ Trusting God, by Jerry Bridges
I don’t have to conjure up strength in myself. Wouldn’t matter if I tried because I know that I have none. IT IS GOD’S STRENGTH.
If I am going to run the race God has given me – if I am going to do the will of my Father – then I MUST run it, I must do it, with HIS strength. Otherwise, it’s just my own doing, out of my own prideful thoughts, desires and ambitions.
“I can do everything [ALL things] through Him [that would be Jesus] who GIVES me strength.” ~ Philippians 4:13
What a wonder! There’s not a single thing that can happen today or ever that this verse does not apply to. It’s not through my strength – but ENTIRELY THROUGH GOD’s – the God of the Universe!! God does not simply “give me human strength” – though that would be nice. Instead, knowing that my battles are less in the human-realm, and more within the principalities of darkness – He gives me HIS OWN Eternal Strength. The strength that can do anything – the strength that can always be relied upon – the strength that never falls and never ever fails.
6 Because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba, Father.” 7 So you are no longer a slave, but a son; and since you are a son, God has made you also an heir. ~ Galatians 4:6-7
I wonder why I wallow in the muck and mire of despair some days. For when I read this – that God didn’t merely give me nature, or food, or family, or friends – all the things for which I am truly thankful. No – God apparently knew that wouldn’t be enough.
And God didn’t “just” send Jesus to die for our sins – which to my mind would have seemed like it was more than enough.
But God said “Connie is going to need more daily help to grow up into the person I want her to be. I am going to send the very Spirit of Jesus to live inside of her – to help her, to convict her, to love on her, to enjoy her, to heal her, to grow her, to pray for her when she doesn’t know what to say, to pick her up, to shine light upon her face, to reveal my words to her.”
(Psst … God said and did the same thing for you, too.)
16 for, “Who has known the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ. ~ 1 Corinthians 2:16
God, the Father of all, sent the very Spirit of Jesus INTO MY heart. I do not understand it. But I believe it. And thus, I can expect to have “the mind of Christ”, and the “strength of Christ”. I am no longer a slave, but a “son,” a "daughter" – I am “HEIR” to ALL that Jesus has redeemed FOR me.
Each and every day God is teaching me new things, giving me new direction, and showing me how to apply them to my life. And it’s time I started acting like the heir I’ve been created to be. Not faking it. But in deepest honesty – repenting, turning away from my childish things. It’s time to carry myself, my mind, my heart, my desires, my actions as an HEIR. It’s time I respected my Father, the Creator of the Universe, and the Lover & Savior of my soul… respected Him enough to stop wearing my pajamas on His plane. It's time I dress like an heir – that I show up like an heir – that others see the difference in me.
The song below was written by Steven Curtis Chapman in 1988 – 20 years before he ever truly realized the kind of strength he was writing and singing about (needed because of the death of his daughter in 2008). God prepares us in the “now” – sometimes for today, but often for “tomorrow”. Let us never neglect time with Him. For tomorrow’s “all things” may require more Eternal Strength than we can imagine today.
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