Daily Devotion for January 12, 2026
Prayers
Scripture
Lord’s Prayer
Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come; Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever and ever.
Today’s music is a brilliant musical prayer, from Audrey Assad.
From the love of my own comfort,
From the fear of having nothing,
From a life of worldly passions,
Deliver me O God.
From the need to be understood,
From the need to be accepted,
From the fear of being lonely,
Deliver me O God.
Deliver me O God.
And I shall not want, I shall not want,
When I taste Your goodness, I shall not want.
When I taste Your goodness, I shall not want.
From the fear of serving others,
From the fear of death or trial,
From the fear of humility,
Deliver me O God.
Deliver me O God.
And I shall not want,
I shall not want.
When I taste Your goodness
I shall not want
Music and Lyrics by Audrey Assad & Bryan Brown
Prayer to Follow God's Will Today
O God, the author of all good, I come to You for the grace another day will require for its duties and events. I step out into a wicked world; I carry about with me an evil heart. I know that without You I can do nothing, that everything with which I shall be concerned, however harmless in itself, may prove an occasion of sin or folly, unless I am kept by Your power.
Hold me up O God and I shall be safe. Preserve my understanding from subtlety of error, my affections from love of idols, my character from stain of vice, my profession from every form of evil. May I engage in nothing in which I cannot implore Your blessing, and in which I cannot invite Your inspection. Prosper me in all lawful undertakings, or prepare me for disappointments.
Give me neither poverty nor riches. Feed me with food suitable for me, lest I be full and deny You and say, “Who is the Lord?” Or be poor, and steal, and take Your name in vain. May every creature be made good to me by prayer and Your will. Teach me how to use the world and not abuse it, to improve my talents, to redeem my time, to walk in wisdom toward those without, and in kindness to those within, to do good to all men, and especially to my fellow Christians. And to You, O God, be the glory.
For Mercy
Heavenly Father, true God, who sent Your beloved Son to seek the wandering sheep, I have sinned against heaven and before You; receive me like the Prodigal Son, and clothe me with the garment of innocence, of which I was deprived by sin. Have mercy upon Your Creatures and upon me, a great sinner.
Meditation
Never seek revenge. Rotten fruit will fall by itself
Benediction
The God of peace, who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus Christ, the great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant; Make me perfect in every good work to do your will, working in me that which is well pleasing in your sight; through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever.
Think of the day ahead in terms of God with you, and visualize health, strength, guidance, purity, calm confidence, and victory as the gifts of His presence.
Until God Comes Down
“Oh, men and women, pray through; pray through! Do not just begin to pray and pray a little while and throw up your hands and quit; but pray and pray and pray until God bends the heavens and comes down.”
~ Reuben Archer Torrey, American evangelist (1856-1928)
Galatians 2:21 (BSB)
I do not set aside the grace of God. For if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died for nothing.
DP Parallel Bible (3-Column) - Galatians 2
Notes on the Scripture
Rejecting Grace (Galatians #22)
ometimes we get a bit ahead of ourselves, so we should examine the basic issue Paul is discussing, to make sure we are all on the same page. I apologize to those who might find this somewhat repetitive, but it is the core of Galatians, so let’s make sure we understand it!
Judaism taught, and continues to teach, that God gave to Moses a comprehensive set of laws about many aspects of life. (These are contained in the last four books of the Pentateuch: Exodus, Leviticus, Deuteronomy and Numbers.) The Pharisees, forebears of today’s Orthodox Jews, further believed that groups of great teachers, rabbi’s, had refined the laws given to Moses and shown people how to apply them to specific situations in everyday life.
Here is the key point: Jews believe(d) that, by following these laws to the precise letter, God would find them worthy and reward them. And if they should make a mistake, there were sacrificial laws that told them how to purify themselves from the stain of sin.
Paul teaches us something quite different. First, the Law of Moses cannot make us righteous before God, because we are incapable of keeping it. This was part of the meaning of Christ’s teaching in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5, 6, and 7). He demonstrated that compliance with God’s requirements for holiness is beyond human power, and that the Jews were flagrantly disregarding the spirit of the law. Men, given a set of specific rules, might come to meet the physical letter of the law, but their hearts will inevitably roam away from God.
Now, Paul goes much farther. In Galatians, he teaches that the only purpose of the law was to demonstrate to humanity that they are sinful! We cannot be holy before God by our own action, no matter what rules we follow. It is humanly impossible not to sin; and the way God taught this to the Hebrews was by giving them laws that they invariably would not be able to keep.
Thus, the law leads only to death. Trying to live by the law and relying upon one’s efforts to meet it only insures that one will offend God. But the Law itself is good, because even if we are dying under the Law, at least we know it! And when we realize we are dying, we are then ready to fall on our faces before God, in faith, knowing that only He can save us by forgiving us. We are ready for Christ.
In verse 21, Paul really hammers the point home: If we say that the Law can save us, we are saying that Christ died for nothing. It renders His death meaningless.
The moral law does remain in effect; however, we do not think we will saved by following it. Rather, we try to follow it out of love for Christ.
The Jewish ritual laws, on the other hand, were superseded by the death of Christ. His sacrifice was perfect for all sin, for all time. We have no need to follow them; they are empty and meaningless gestures. For example, one of the best known taboos in Judaism is eating pork. But we can eat pork. We can refrain from eating pork. There is no longer any religious significance whatsoever. (Matt. 15:11)
It is important to understand the preceding paragraph, for it states the major issue in Paul’s mind. But remember what started all of this, which was Peter eating only with Jews. Paul’s main objection was that it appeared to indicate that Peter was still relying on the Law, but there was a second reason that Peter was wrong to do it: Love and fellowship with our brothers and sisters in Christ is evidence of our faith. (E.g. 1 John 1:7)
It is the will of Christ that we love and engage in fellowship with one another, fully; to create any group exclusive of other believers is contrary to His will. (There are sometimes specific groups formed to deal with specific issues, such as alcoholism, victims of abuse, gender-specific issues, etc. One would have to think that such groups are not contrary to Christ’s commandment; but we should always be careful in this regard.)
