In episode 190, “Faith Versus Works”, Brooke & Faren discuss the meaning of Galatians 2:16 in the Bible, and how faith and works go together. Learn how to pray about it, talk about with others, and live out how this scripture applies to everyday life. The Galatians mini series begins on episode 189 and goes through episode 193 of the Witty & Gritty podcast.
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Read About Faith Versus Works
The Bible is very clear in multiple verses that we can’t work our way into Heaven. We cannot be good enough, smart enough, hardworking enough, etc… Paul drives this point home in the book of Galatians. As much as we’d love a checklist on “How to Be a Good Christian”, we can take a step back and realize that we can’t even keep up with the to do lists we make for ourselves. Thanks, God for unconditional grace, mercy, and love.
“Yet we know that a person is made right with God by faith in Jesus Christ, not by obeying the law. And we have believed in Christ Jesus, so that we might be made right with God because of our faith in Christ, not because we have obeyed the law. For no one will ever be made right with God by obeying the law.”
Galatians 2:16
If you feel like you stuck on the hamster wheel of good works, still feel empty inside, or not filled up, you may be putting works over faith. Going through the motions of reading your Bible isn’t the same as dwelling in the word, soaking it in, and applying it to your life. We walk you through determining this in the podcast episode, so be sure to scroll up and press play.
Pray to Be Faith Driven
If you feel stuck in your spiritual walk or you can’t quite pinpoint what you’re missing, this is a great thing to talk with God about. Ask God to reveal to you where you’re struggling with the hustle mentality instead of truly resting in Him. Do you have a pocket of life or has it even become a lifestyle for you to grind daily, and you still feel unfulfilled? Is there a checklist you’re working from that you’ve now place that over what God is saying to you?
It all comes down to why you are doing what you’re doing. Are you reading your Bible to say you’ve read it? Is it for prideful reasons, selfish gains, or to prove a point? We challenge you with some tough prayer and journal prompts in this portion of the podcast, so if you’re wanting to dig deeper, be sure to tune into episode 190 “Faith Versus Works” where we provide different exercises you can do to. Ask yourself, “If I had a heart after God, how would I do this differently?”
Talk About Your Plan
So here’s the burning question we get all the time: “How do you get it all done?” Short answer: no one gets it all done all the time. That’s the reality. With that being said, it’s so important to do a time audit and prioritize what matters most. Once you’ve done those two things, you can beging to creatively work on the how part of this plan. This is where our Atomic Habits mini series will come in handy. We break down how to start good habits, stop the bad ones, and how to be the most effective with your time. You can tune into our Atomic Habits mini series HERE.
Our Read, Pray, Talk, Tell method knocks it out of the park on how to grow yourself as a believer. We encourage you to get with your home group, and discuss what works for each of you. Take what works in this season of life, and leave the rest. Slowly begin implementing what works for you and your schedule. Remember, faith in God produces those good works (like reading your Bible, praying, Christian community, and telling others about Jesus), so pray hard to have God transform you into a faith over works person.
Tell Others About Your Giftings
We know that faith produces those good works, so how do we help our kids understand what we’re doing and why we’re doing it? So glad you asked. We know that it’s important to implicitly (modeling) and explicitly (say it/teach it) talk about how faith and good works are connected. Talk to your kids about how you use your God given gifts and talents to help others. We give several examples of how this can look in the episode, so scroll back up and press play to hear them:
Serving in your church is one way this can look, but it can look many other ways as well. Think and pray on your giftings, name them, and start using them to teach your children about how faith produces good works. This is also a great time to begin speaking life into your children by looking for the talents God has given them. Try by asking what they think they’re good at, what they enjoy doing, and how they like to help others.
We hope you enjoyed episode 190, “Faith Versus Works”, with our read, pray, talk, tell insight. Now it’s up to you to work through the Bible chapter discussed, pray about this verse using the prompts given, have biblical community around this verse, and go point others to Christ with the tips we give. Remember, when you read, pray, talk, tell consistently, you’ll grow your faith in God more deeply. Tune in next week to hear another breakdown of a Bible verse!
Links From the Show
