No Distractions, Day 15 The familiar and the comfortable. Read Galatians 5:1-6. Paul sees the temptation that the people are facing and he calls it out. You see, the people have been set free through Christ. However, it’s so easy to stay in what is comfortable and familiar. The people were used to trying to follow the laws. They were used to following through specific checklists of things they can do and not do. So even though they have received Christ and are set free through him, they are often falling back on all these rules and checklists. Paul wants them to understand that is not what the Christian life…

No Distractions, Day 14 Get rid of the distractions! Read Galatians 4:21-31. As we finish out chapter 4, Paul is giving an example of how we can be distracted and how we need to get rid of the distractions. Paul reminds the people of the story of Abraham. When Abraham tried to jump ahead of God’s promise, he had a son with his wife’s servant Hagar. It became a situation where he had a son of the slave woman and a son of the free woman. Paul reminds the people that this is exactly how we are before we come to Christ. We are sons of the law verses being…

No Distractions, Day 13 Truth trumps all. Read Galatians 4:11-20. As these lessons center around no distractions, we’ve mentioned a lot about the importance of staying focused and eliminating the things in our life that cause us to lose that focus. One piece that we can’t forget about is our need to stay focused on truth. We can be focused on a great many things, but if it’s not on the truth, then that focus will eventually lead us astray. The truth of God is what keeps us from distractions. If we lose our diligence to stay focused on the truth, we will miss out on all that God has…

No Distractions, Day 12 A freed prisoner doesn’t stay in the cage. Read Galatians 4:4-10. Paul is continuing to explain to the people just how silly it is for them to be distracted with other things. Paul reminds them that because of their new life in Christ, they have been freed. It’s like they were slaves to all the other things in the world that were trying to get their attention, and now they have been freed from all of that. However, when they go back to trying to just keep the law, they it’s like they never experienced the freedom. They Have been freed by Christ, but yet are…

No Distractions, Day 11 No distracting thoughts. Read Galatians 4:1-3. Our thoughts can be very distracting. What we see here are individuals that start to think more of themselves can find themselves distracted by perception of position. Paul was reminding them that the heir of an entire estate, if still underage, is pretty much no different from a slave at the estate. When we think about our relationship to Christ, we recognize that we are a child of God. However, the time has not come for us yet to fully inherit everything God has for us. God takes that time to allow us to grow and to learn. Are we…

No Distractions, Day 10 Know your origin story. Read Galatians 3:23-29. Paul takes this opportunity to remind the people that they need to know and understand where they come from. I enjoy superhero stories and a big part of those stories are the origin story. Superheroes need to know where they come from as it will influence who they are and why they do what they do. The same is true with us as believers. We need to understand that our origin story begins and ends with Jesus Christ. We have been made children of God as a result of our relationship with him. If we stay focused on who…

No Distractions, Day 9 Keep your thinking in check. Read Galatians 3:15-22. Sometimes, in our quest to understand things, we end up overthinking things. Our understanding of who God is, and what he has done for us, is really quite simple. However, we often overcomplicate it and try to add in things that just simply don’t need to be there. The Galatians were doing that very thing. They had learned that Christ died for them and that his sacrifice was enough. However, they were now going back and trying to add in all the pieces of the law that they had been taught, trying to understand how to make that…

No Distractions, Day 8 The Example. Read Galatians 3:1-14. When it comes to no distractions, Christ is our example. Here we see Paul discussing all that Christ has done for us. Our sin required payment. Because of that, Christ paid the debt that we owed. How could he do this? Because he was focused on doing exactly what God had called him to do. Christ did not get distracted. Christ didn’t move off one side or the other side. As a result, Christ was able to fulfill every single piece of what he was being asked to do by the Father. Christ is the perfect example of following through, staying…

No Distractions, Day 7 Not earned. Read Galatians 3:1-9. Paul continues to share with the Galatians the importance of understanding their faith. He wants to make sure they recognize that there was nothing they did that earned them salvation. They made a decision to believe in Christ. And because of that decision, that was credited to them as righteousness. Paul even goes so far as to bring up Abraham and remind the people that God made Abraham to be the father of many nations, not just the one nation of Israel. Anyone who believes on Christ by faith is a child of Abraham, not just the people of Israel. The…

No Distractions, Day 6 Dead things don’t get distracted. Read Galatians 2:17-21. Our focus verse today is one of the more famous verses that Paul has written. It’s an incredible reminder that when we accept Christ in our lives, we are, in essence, dying to ourselves and accepting Christ’s life in exchange for our own. As Paul explains, we no longer live. Christ lives through us. Let’s think about what that actually means. We were crucified with Christ. We’ve died. Our old sinful ways have been killed. As we think about this in terms of our idea of distractions, we have to remind ourselves that if we are dead, we…