Galatians 4:7

Devotional Thoughts

By David Wilkerson

Today people want to be everything but a servant. In fact, their pride is repelled by the idea of servanthood. A popular Scripture is, “Therefore you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ” (Galatians 4:7).

What is Paul really saying here? He is explaining that a son who has been taught correctly knows he is legally the king’s heir with all the rights that accompany the position. But he loves his father so much that he chooses the role of a servant.

Paul said in Romans 1:1 that he was “a servant of Jesus Christ” and James called himself “a servant of God” (James 1:1). And Christ, the very Son of God, “made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant” (Philippians 2:7).

A servant has no will of his own; his master’s word is his will. The cross represents the death of all my own plans, my own ideas, my own desires, my own hopes and dreams. And most of all, it is the absolute death of my own will.

Jesus told His disciples, “My [fulfillment in life] is to do the will of him that sent me” (John 4:34). In other words, “I wait to hear every direction from My Father.”

John wrote, “As he is, so are we in this world” (1 John 4:17). Every true Christian must be willing to say, “I really want to do His will.” But we can miss it if we set our hearts on something that we want, something that looks good and sounds logical, but is not God’s will. One of the biggest traps Christians fall into is chasing a good idea that is not from God.

Can your desire survive the cross? Can you walk away from your dream, die to it? God knows what is best for you so cry out to Him, “Father, if this is not your will, it could destroy me. I give it to You so do it Your way, Lord.”