Galatians 3:5 - Do you need help?

Last time we looked at Galatians 3:4 and asked the question, “was your suffering in vain?”. We know that suffering, if we let it, will bring us closer to the Lord and let us experience Him more. Ultimately good comes from the suffering. The lesson before that we asked the question, “are you trying to go it alone?” In other words why would you not use the power of God in your life to help you vs trying to do things on your own.

Today we are looking at Galatians 3:5. Let’s read it together.

5 He therefore that ministereth to you the Spirit, and worketh miracles among you, doeth he it by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?

Once again Paul asks a question. He is building an argument. He is trying to get us to think.

People had come into the church and said you need to observe certain Jewish rituals in order to be a true Christian. People still say these things today. Paul’s argument has been that you received the Holy Spirit not by your works or good deeds, but because you trusted Jesus Christ as your saviour and relied on Him and Him alone for your salvation.

Paul is now saying basically the same thing. The word minister means to supply. So he is saying that the Lord supplied the Holy Spirit and it is He that does the miracles in your life and it is He that comforts you.

The question again is did he do this because of your works or because of your faith in Jesus. Well of course the answer is because of our faith in Jesus.

Jesus, hours before He went to the cross had a meeting with His closest disciples. He told them many things. One of the most important things he told them was that he was going away. I don’t think the disciples understood what was about to happen.

But Jesus also told them something very special. Let’s look in

John 14:16-18

16 And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever;

17 Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.

18 I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you.

Jesus promises that the Father will send the Holy Spirit and the Lord will be with us. He will not leave us alone.

At this very time, I am going thru the worst time in my life. I have lost the ministries that I love, because of circumstances outside of my control. I began to fall deeper and deeper into despair. I began to cry myself to sleep at night, or break down on the way to work. I felt like I had no one to turn to. Those that I had ministered to before, or Christians that had thought so highly of me, now thought I had failed. I felt so alone. The despair then turned to anger, to the point I have hurt those that are so dear to me. The people who love me and care for me, I have hurt deeply to the point I have driven them away from me.

What I have found in ministry is that when things go wrong for the minister, most people aren’t going to reach out to him or her and build them back up. When the preacher, teacher or deacon falls hard, many times people won’t come help them get back up.

Sometimes that minister feels like others don’t care for them and the minister doesn’t reach out for help.

At those times in life the most mature Christian man or woman can fall into despair. I turned bitter towards others and hurt my family as a result. I have done the unspeakable since the fall.

After all of this, what has the Lord reminded me of. Well it took awhile, but this verse in Galatians helped me to remember that the Lord will always be with me. No matter what I have done in my life,