Don’t all of us want to please God? I think even when I didn’t believe God existed, I would have wanted to please Him if He did. (Does that even make any sense?)

God has placed in us an inborn desire to please Him.

And yet, in our natural state, I find that we want to please Him by following some kind of list, by checking all the boxes, by doing all the right things and making ourselves acceptable to Him. This is rooted in PRIDE, sisters, and God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble. No wonder He desires us to come to Him as little children.

Here is how God says you please Him — by FAITH, by BELIEVING that He exists and BELIEVING that He rewards those who seek Him (Hebrews 11:6). But that is too simple for us. No. That is too extraordinary for us. That is too humbling for us.

Today I found myself diving into Galatians 3. I would encourage you to read the whole chapter – or several chapters – or the whole book today. (It would be profitable for each of us to make reading the book of Romans from beginning to end a regular part of our Bible reading time. But I find that Galatians is in many ways a condensed version of Romans, especially Galatians 3-5.)

I can’t get over Galatians 3:3 “Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?”

When my old self died and I was born anew, this was a miraculous act of the Spirit. There was nothing I could DO to make myself righteous before God. Nothing. No single act or series of acts could cleanse me of a lifetime of sin. God gave me a new heart as I came to Him humbly and asked Him for it.

And yet, I find in myself, that now I somehow think that I can be “good enough,” that I CAN earn it.

O foolish Kim! Who has bewitched me? Having begun in the Spirit, am I now being perfected in the flesh? Does He who supplied the Spirit to me and who works miracles before my very eyes do so by works of the law???? Or by hearing with faith???

Please join me, sisters, in walking by the obedience of faith, submitting our lives to Him and His calling on us, not trying to earn salvation as our wages, but believing in Him who justifies the ungodly. (See my former posts related to Romans 4:4-5 on Wages Due)