Galatians 4:21-31

Last month in “Today in The Word” from Moody Bible. They went through the book of Galatians. God laid it on my heart to talk tonight on these verses, and how the Lord spoke to me on what to write about.

Blood lines. It is our fathers, mothers, sisters and brothers. As believers, we now have a different blood line, that is Jesus Christ. Before we accepted Christ, we were of the blood line of Hagar and Ishmael, slaves to this world. And just as Hagar was sent out into the desert, to die, we too were in the desert of our sins, dying. We sat in the burning sun of despair and hopelessness, surrounded by the sands of unrighteousness and a dead heart. We Looked to ourselves to find water to quench our thirsts. We were born “according to the flesh,” so we lived by the flesh. Constantly living to satisfy our wants and desires. Think about it, our power, our thoughts or ideas, our way of accomplishment is futile. Our vision of the future, and how we wanted things to work out was flawed by our sinfulness. When we lived as we wanted, chasing our dreams, we were slaves to those wants and desires. We used our power and intellect to make it happen in our time frame. We listened to the lies that Satan was whispering in our ears, “You need it now!” “No one else matters, it’s what you want that counts.”

In Genesis Chapter 21:19 it says, “Then God opened her eyes and she saw a well of water and filled the skin with water and gave the boy a drink” God did that for us, when we accepted Him as our Lord and Savior. He opened our eyes, and hearts, to understand the love He has for us. Our blood line was changed, because we had a transfusion from the blood that Jesus shed on Calvary in order that our sins were washed away, separated from us, forever.  For us, the believer, Abraham & Isaac are our blood lines now. Our trust in Christ enabled us to pitch our earthly tents next to His oasis of living water. The words we read in our bibles daily, during our devotions, is that water. We go daily to be refreshed, to drink in the power, strength and courage to face what the devil will throw at us. It continually shows us that we are from Abraham and Isaac’s blood line not Hagar & Ishmael’s. Daily our hearts gladly welcome the Holy Spirit in, knowing that by it dwelling inside us, we are in God’s hands. It also reminds us that when we fall, and oh boy how we do sometimes, that we cannot be snatched from His hands, because of the shed blood of Christ. The blood that is inside us.

                   His word also encourages us to solder on, to express to others the change He has brought into our hearts, and lives.  The Holy Spirit empowers us to live our lives as examples, to live a life as Jesus did. And lastly, we are encouraged to pray for others. The Holy Spirit gives us the patience to continue lifting others in prayer, knowing God is at work, breaking hearts of stone, providing for the hungry, lonely and lost people around us. The living water of His word gives us the strength to face our trials, gives us courage to walk through our “Valleys” and the heart that praises Him, in all we say and do. It is awesome to ponder, that the same promise we receive daily, because we believe, Abraham & Isaac also received. In Genesis 15:6, from the Amplified Bible version we read “And he [Abram] believed in (trusted in, relied on, remained steadfast to) the Lord, and He counted it to him as righteousness (right standing with God).” So, then, when we accepted Christ and truly knew that we were forgiven, and began living as Jesus commanded us, we too were credited as being righteous before our Father in heaven, we were no longer slaves to sin. We were from the blood line that frees us from the slavery of Satan’s lies, allowing us to live, having Christ’s redemptive blood flow over us and through us.

          So, no matter your past, no matter how far you feel that you have walked away from Jesus, He continues to love and cherish you. It was for you that He willingly, yes willingly went to the cross to die for you. I pray today that you will turn to Jesus and allow the righteous blood that He shed for you to cover you, forgive you, so that you too will know that your blood line is in Him.