SOAP: Why do I do what I do?

Scripture:

Galatians 4: 10

You are trying to find favor with God by what you do or don’t do on certain days or months or seasons or years.

Observation: You are trying to please the Lord by following ritual.

Application: Following ritual does not need to be done to please the Lord. He already loves us and wants our hearts, not our actions. Things should be done completely out of love, not meaningless ritual.

Prayer: Lord, thank you for more confirmation that you want my heart and not hollow actions. Thank you for reminding me that I cannot earn your love through whatever it is I may do “for” you: I already have your love and you do not “need’ me to do anything.

Please guide me in the freedom from this. I think I do pretty well in doing things for you because I want to, but please help me to scrape anything away I am doing out of wrongfully assumed obligation, and let my actions be motivated just by love.

Guide me in evaluating why I do anything: Do I do it because of what others think? Or what I think you might want? Or do I do it because I am truly motivated by pure love for you?

I need your help in re-aligning my motivations. Please help me. I want to serve you with my whole heart in honest ways, not through shallow actions.

PS Today’s reading was Deuteronomy 22-24 and Galatians 4. If you’d like to see what someone else heard from the same passages, please follow this link to the Faithbridge site. Today is day 14.

And if you would like Bible bookmark to read along, please send me an email using the link above and I’ll pop one in the mail to you.