Be Still . . .
Devotionals for Daily Living ©

You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? Before your very eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed as crucified.
(Galatians 3:1 (NIV))

How many of us have fallen into this very trap?

We start out by accepting the truth and the Holy Spirit and then we soon allow human effort and false wisdom to take control!

We earnestly desire for the Holy Spirit to rule in our lives, but we begin to place stipulations upon Him. We only want it when it is convenient for us. We want to limit it to only an hour every Sunday. We soon have replaced God's Holy Spirit with our own definition of God's Spirit. It is a definition that is completely devoid of the truth, for we do not understand God's truth.

As the heavens are higher than the earth,
     so are my ways higher than your ways
     and my thoughts than your thoughts.
(Isaiah 55:9 (NIV))

We are not supposed to fully understand God.

We are to trust Him!

It is when we do not trust Him that our human effort and thinking begins to take control. We feel that we must do something to bridge the gap that we perceive as real. The problem is that God did not make that gap, we did. God has given us a way to bridge that gap. All that we have to do is believe and receive. Unfortunately, all too often we begin to think that something more is required of us.

We begin to feel that we have not earned it.

And we haven't earned anything living in our sin!

For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
(Romans 6:23 (NIV))

We have not earned it. We can never earn it. It is a gift. After you receive a gift, do you begin to question the motives of the giver? Do you begin to seek ways to ridicule the giver? This is exactly what we do when we try to attain our goal by human effort. It will not work. We become fools in the eyes of the giver. The gift is perfect. We can do nothing to improve upon it. All that we can do is receive.

Are you trying to apply foolishness to perfection?

Copyright 1998 - 2026 Dennis J. Smock
Daily Living Ministries, Inc.
https://www.dailylivingministries.org
Support Daily Living Ministries
Subscribe to daily email delivery
Visit us on facebook