The Fruit of Promise

"But the son of the slave was born according to the flesh, while the son of the free woman was born through promise."

~Galatians 4:23

These words struck me during a worship night not too long ago. What does it mean to be born according to the flesh? 

Sorrow. That is the fruit of our efforts. The fruit we can't face without dispair, and so we keep striving, trying to find our way out of sorrow into joy. But our efforts always fail us. 

Ishmael was born out of striving and performance and effort; his birth brought joy but its source also led to pain. The gift was not withheld because of Abraham and Sarah's striving, and yet sorrow was birthed with it. 

It's so easy to become obsessed with what we want, but it's just as easy to become obsessed with making the right choice, ensuring we're on God's path, discerning properly, but both of those take our eyes off God and onto an idol. That idol may be our desire, but it can just as easily become our own ability to stay in God's will. This is the fruit of striving, and it produces anxiety and insecurity. 

But seeking His face, that is the fruit of promise. 

Striving gets us nowhere, but the promise refreshes us. It's the life we breathe. Because God is the ultimate promise. 

In seeking His face we learn to trust His character and to live in His words. God has promised that He will keep us. That's what it means to serve a covenant God. It means we have freedom.

Freedom is the fruit of promise. Trust is the fruit of promise. Peace is the fruit of promise. We receive who God is in the promise.

"For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery."

~Galatians 5:1

God makes a promise, and He keeps it. But He's also the One who keeps us in it. He brings it back to us time and time again when we are so inclined towards striving. And even when we fall into striving, He still keeps His promise to us.  

God gives us Himself in every promise whether it's for an individual or for the world. Every particular promise carries a piece of Him. A part of His character. His feeling of delight. The Kingdom He brings. Every promise is more of Him. 

What a gift this is. A gift that the fulfillment of the promise can draw us into, and yet that we need not wait to enjoy. 

God is infinite, and yet He reveals Himself in these tangible ways. He gives us promises to grasp that we might know Him experientially. He puts Himself on display. He is known in the promise, and the joy, satisfaction, fulfillment, and delight we feel at each promise is only a small measure of the joy, satisfaction, fulfillment, and delight we have in God.

God is our only source of joy; nothing else will satisfy. Every other source we seek will naturally lead us into sorrow whether that feels like the heartbeat of our lives or an undercurrent we can't quite escape.

The test of the promise is not ultimately the end results or the circumstances leading up to it but the fruit it produces. The child of promise and the child of striving--both resulted in a child, but the fruit they produced in the spirit, that's where they differed. 

God wants us to live out of promise and not out of striving because in the place of promise, we find delight, and we always, always find more of Him.

He is kind. We are favored. The promise is good. 

Dear friend, leave your striving behind and fall into His mercies, which are new every morning.