Stop Striving And Start Thriving | Monday

Fruit(Full) Week 1 | Freedom!

Listen instead of reading

Take a Moment

Ask God what He wants to show you before reading today

Read The Daily

So Christ has truly set us free. Now make sure that you stay free, and don’t get tied up again in slavery to the law. (Galatians 5:1)

I was in the office last week talking with Aaron about his message and the first part of Galatians chapter 5.  What he said hit hard.  So much so that I said you need to share that on Sunday.  He was talking about verse one and he said, “I have been a Christian for almost all of my life, but I wonder how much of that has been living free?  A ton of it has been in guilt, work, or even fear, but not much in freedom”.  I thought how sad it is that we miss the true freedom we are invited to live in.  

It is incredibly exhausting trying to earn God’s love. I’ve always been an achiever.  When I first trusted in the gospel as a 12 year old kid, I slowly began enslaving myself to what a good Christian is “supposed to do.” Anytime I wasn’t reading the Bible, praying, and sharing my faith,  I would begin heaping more shame and guilt on myself. I believed God the Father was more pleased with me on the days I woke up early, did my devotional and prayer, talked about what I read with a friend or struck up a Jesus conversation with a stranger.

I was able to do these things consistently for a while, but like a car that is running on the wrong type of gas, I burnt out quickly. Finding security in my works was exhausting. Why?  Because I don’t have the power to do those things anyways or if I do, it’ll still be “fake fruit”.  Thankfully, a friend of mine shared how grace really works.  He gave me a few books that explained how Jesus changed everything and how the early followers lived in grace and freedom.  It was like a weight had been lifted off my shoulders.  The first step to go from striving to thriving is to not go back to making your relationship with God more rules and a daily to do list.  

Prayer for the Day

God what are you  showing me?  What am I going to do about it? 

God help me to see one person that I can serve through a kind word, random act of kindness, or simple gift today?

Make sure you complete the reading or comment today.

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