By Julian Wells

“I would like to learn just one thing from you: Did you receive the Spirit by observing the law, or by believing what you heard? Are you so foolish? After beginning with the Spirit, are you now trying to attain your goal by human effort? Have you suffered so much for nothing- if it really was for nothing? Does God give you his Spirit and work miracles among you because you observe the law, or because you believe what you heard? … Clearly no one is justified before God by the law, because, ‘the righteous will live by faith.'” (Galatians 3:2-5, 11 NIV)

While we may not wrestle with reverting to the law as was the issue Paul was addressing with his letter to the Galatians, we do still struggle with the mindset of the law. We are too content to live the Christian life with the limited resources of our flesh, seldom accessing or experiencing the limitless power of God that is at our disposal.

Paul is speaking here of a living, active faith- a faith that undergirds, guides, and empowers everything we say and do. A faith that sets us apart in the eyes of those we encounter. A faith that moves mountains, results in the abundant life Jesus desires for us, and brings glory to God. A faith that energizes the Spirit within us and unlocks the power of God to do all that we can ask or even imagine.

Lord, help me to experience that kind of faith by looking more to you and less to my own human efforts which must be so puny in your sight.

“Faith is a divine work in us. It changes us and makes us to be born anew of God. It kills the old Adam and makes us altogether different people, in heart and spirit and mind and powers, and it brings with it the Holy Spirit.” – Martin Luther