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Ripple Effect Reading | Week 2 | Day 3
Prayer
Take a moment to be silent and still. In order to be fully present in body and mind, take a deep breath in and let it out slowly. Do this three times. Pray that God would open your eyes to wonderful things from His word today.
Bible Reading: Galatians 5:13-14
Read these verses three times slowly.
You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love. For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”
Reflection & Questions
Did you know when you received Jesus that you were set free? You no longer have a set of rules to try to keep in order to be in relationship with God. Sin no longer needs to be your master. You are free to live under Jesus’ light yolk (Matt 11:28-30) and to live to the fullest (John 10:10).
So how are you going to use that freedom? Paul says there are two ways. We can “indulge the flesh” or “serve one another humbly in love.” What does it mean to indulge the flesh? Well we can use our new freedom to be greedy (keeping God’s blessing to ourselves), lazy (losing all desire to help others), prideful (looking down on others), and we could go on. Like a jailbird who gets an undeserved “get out of jail free” card and returns to a life of crime, it is a mockery of what Jesus has done to use our new life in Him to live in sin.
Instead we’re to use our new life in Jesus to serve others. We’re to do it with humility, knowing that we don’t deserve our freedom (and so we can’t consider ourselves more important than others). And we’re to do it with love, knowing that God has poured out amazing love on us, and it only makes sense that we show that same love to others. As Paul says, “the entire law” is about “love your neighbor as yourself.”
- How are you using your freedom in Christ? How do you know?
- How could you serve others in humility and love today?
Prayer
Talk to God in response to today’s reading.
Worship Song
You might use this song today to worship Jesus today:
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Questions?
Ed Applegate
