When you live like a son or daughter instead of a slave, you stop measuring yourself against everyone else. Instead, we lean into the fruits of the Spirit, not out of a grind but instead out of creating space and holding space for the fruit to flourish. It takes time for these spiritual fruits to grow. But we must be diligent to continue allowing the Father to cut away the thorns, weeds and fruits of the flesh so the fruits of the Spirit can flourish in us by his power.

There is no ritual, habit, or good work that can self-power us into the Way of Christ. It’s only through the cross and our submission to it, as Jesus submitted to it, that we will experience the fullness of the Gospel. Paul is doing everything he can to keep the Galatian church grounded in their identity in Christ. The cross is now their identity. Nothing else.

Mary Magdalene is a surprisingly misunderstood and under-discussed disciple of Jesus. Although she was not named as one of the twelve disciples, as we will learn today, she was a key part of Jesus’ ministry and the spread of the Gospel.

It’s easy to slip into discontentment under the guise of being goal-driven or in the name of achievement. It feels unfair when we have to live in the choices and circumstances that others have made for us, so we feel justified in the discontent of our life. And when the way things used to be aren’t the way things are anymore, we become frustrated and discontent, longing for previous days and years.

The Gospel - the Good news of Jesus Christ - is that not only did he come to earth, defeat death, and rise up again so that I may have new life, that I may know the love of the Father. That’s only half of it! Not only is this good news for me, but the second half is that God came to earth for others too. So my job as a Christian is not just to grow closer each day with the Father through Jesus, but then also to be sharing this same Good News with others.

It’s no secret that we become what we contemplate on, think on, focus on. So, if we want to become like Jesus, then we must look at Jesus. Contemplative prayer is central to spiritual formation-becoming people of love in Christ.

We are so used to performing our life with other people. We edit our thoughts to present a more polished image of ourselves to the world in order to be loved and not rejected, to succeed and not fail. It’s like we can’t help but carry that way of being over into our relationship with God. But this isn’t what God designed.

Today’s passage might be right up there with John 3:16 and Psalm 23 as recognized and quoted scriptures, even by those who would not claim Christianity as their own. But as we know with Scripture, we cannot take only one isolated verse or section of verses and dismiss the rest of the context.