Galatians 3:14. so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith.
Think together: Go around and have everyone share one thing that they know about the Holy Spirit.
Read together:
Notice that today’s verse starts with the words “so that.” That means that this verse is the result of the previous verse. What did the previous verse say? It said that Jesus became a curse for us. Why did the sinless Jesus become our curse? SO THAT we might receive the blessing—the promised Holy Spirit.
Way back in the Old Testament, God promised that the Holy Spirit would come to those who believe in Jesus. And that day is right now. Have you placed your trust in Jesus alone to save you from your sin? Well, if you have, then you have the Holy Spirit living inside of you. And that’s a really big deal.
You see, the Holy Spirit is God himself, just like the Father and the Son. So to have the Holy Spirit living in you is to have God living in you. When we get the promised Holy Spirit, we also get all the blessings that come with him. One of the biggest blessings is our new heart, or our new desire.
Have you ever been told or asked to do something but you said, “I don’t want to!”? Has God ever told you what to do through his Word (the Bible) but you thought, “I don’t want to”? Well, the Holy Spirit gives us a new “want to.” When you have the Holy Spirit, you want to love God and others, you want to obey God, and you want to do what is good. That’s why we don’t need the law to tell us what to do anymore; we have the Holy Spirit telling us what we should do instead.
Maybe you’re thinking, “I don’t always want to do what God or the Bible says.” I get that. I don’t either. But usually, when I think about it long enough, I actually do want to obey God and the Bible because I know that God and his Word are way better than what I want to do. If you’re like me, there is a deeper “want” inside of you that wants to love God and obey him. It just doesn’t always come out before the sin comes out. Paul will talk more about that later on in the letter. But for now, let’s just rejoice in knowing that we have God, the Holy Spirit, living in us and that he has forgiven and saved us, even when we don’t always want to love and obey God.
Do something together: Remove the batteries from the remote control and then ask one of your kids to turn on the TV. Why won’t it work? NO POWER! But with the Spirit we have the power we need to love and obey God.
Because of Jesus: We can want to love and obey God by the Spirit.
With Jesus: We have the Holy Spirit living in us.
Pray: Father, by your Spirit help me to love and obey you like Jesus. Amen.
