Buy the Ticket

Verse: Galatians 1:11-12
11 I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that the gospel I preached is not of human origin. 12 I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it; rather, I received it by revelation from Jesus Christ.

Devotion
One of my favorite hikes I’ve ever done was in the Narrows in Zion National Park in Utah. You hike down a slot canyon that at times is so narrow (hence the name) you can touch both walls at the same time! It’s amazing.

OK, now, let’s play a game of “would you rather.” Would you rather I told you in painstaking detail about the Narrows, and bought you a book with pictures so you could visualize it OR would you rather have me buy you tickets to go hike it yourself? No strings attached, a free trip on me. Which would you pick?

In these two verses, Paul is clearly reinforcing his position as an apostle as he tries to convince the Galatians to stop believing the false gospel they are being taught, and realize that the gospel Paul is teaching is the true gospel. However, I want to take a slight variation on these verses as we look at them devotionally.

Paul is telling us that his understanding of the gospel didn’t come just from hearing it from others. He received it by personal experience with Jesus. That’s the point I want to make today.

Is our faith mostly what we hear about God from others, or are we truly knowing God through personal experience? What God wants to offer us is a life of connection and union with him. It is something we live daily. It is not just something we hear about, or hear others talk about. He wants you and I to personally experience his love, his faithfulness, his presence, and his grace every day. He wants each of us to be able to say that our relationship with him is based on personal revelation – personal experience of who God is in our lives.

It can be tempting (and easier) to just keep Jesus at a surface level in our lives—to just have him be someone we’ve heard a lot about, but don’t really know personally. That’s the same as just reading books about the Narrows. Don’t settle for that. Buy the ticket. Take the trip. Put your feet in the river (did I mention there’s a river in the middle you walk in!). Touch the walls. Experience it for yourself!

God doesn’t want us to just know about him. He wants us to personally know Him. 

What can you do today to walk in that direction?

Prayer
I want to know you God. Reveal yourself to me in greater and greater ways!

Author: Christian Dunn