Galatians 5:7-10 (NLT)
“You were running the race so well. Who has held you back from following the truth? It certainly isn’t God, for he is the one who called you to freedom. This false teaching is like a little yeast that spreads through the whole batch of dough! I am trusting the Lord to keep you from believing false teachings. God will judge that person, whoever he is, who has been confusing you.”
Have you ever been doing pretty well in life, going along just fine until you suddenly get thrown off course? Maybe you thought, “I was doing so well! What happened??” If the Galatians were with us today they would feel your pain. They had received the good news about Jesus being the pathway to God and were off and running strong. But then they got distracted — swept up by fear and old ways of thinking. “What if we are supposed to keep following the law? What if Jesus is just part of the answer?”
Anytime we find ourselves with a Jesus plus _____________ scenario we are off track. For us, it might be Jesus plus self-reliance, or Jesus plus my bank account, or Jesus plus what others think of me. How quickly that wrong thinking disrupts our whole lives. And this passage assures us that our non-free thinking is not from God — he is the one who set us free in the first place!
Here’s your freedom for today: God is paying attention to you, making sure that you stay in the middle of his grace. The people and things that add to false thinking in your life are not on God’s favorites list… He wants you to be free and frankly he’s kind of mad at whatever robs you from living a free life. But notice that phrase, “he will keep you…” He is willing and able to protect your mind from the slavery to the “shoulds” and the “musts.” We just need to ask and trust that he will guide us in his grace as we turn to him daily.