Meet in the Middle

Daily Reading:  Galatians 4

Scripture Focus: I entreat you, become as I am, for I also have become as you are. You did me no wrong.  (Galatians 4.12)

Devotional Thought: Have you ever used the website, "Meet in the Middle"?  I use it frequently when I'm trying to set up points of rendezvous with family and friends.  It's a great tool when you don't know exactly where the middle is and when you don't know what's in the middle!

The Apostle Paul wrote to the Galatians to urge them to meet him in the middle: "Become as I am, for I also have  become as you are."  In other words, "Let's compromise.  Let's meet in the middle."  Often we think of Paul as being inflexible and dogmatic, and at times he could be.  But, I think he gets a bad rap in that regard.  Paul was very flexible when it was advantageous to be so.  On one occasion, he wrote, "To the Jews I became as a Jew...  To those under the law I became as one under the law... To those outside the law I became as one outside the law...  To the weak I became weak... I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some. " (1 Corinthians 9.20-23).  If compromise furthered the mission of the gospel, Paul was all for it!  If, however, compromise undermined the cause of Christ he was against it.

John Wesley, the great English preacher of the 18th Century who began the Methodist movement, was a proponent of the maxim, "In the essentials, unity.  In the non-essentials, liberty."  I guess the trick is to determine what are the essentials.  That's not easy, but I would venture to say that too often, we probably name things essential when they really are not. 

How about you?  Are you willing to meet in the middle?

Prayer: Lord, help me to hold on loosely to my ways but to hold on tightly to yours.  Help me to discover the difference as I become a student of your Word and a vessel of your Spirit.  Amen.

Psalm of the Day:  6 Both we and our fathers have sinned; we have committed iniquity; we have done wickedness. 7 Our fathers, when they were in Egypt, did not consider your wondrous works; they did not remember the abundance of your steadfast love, but rebelled by the sea, at the Red Sea. 8 Yet he saved them for his name's sake, that he might make known his mighty power. 9 He rebuked the Red Sea, and it became dry, and he led them through the deep as through a desert. 10 So he saved them from the hand of the foe and redeemed them from the power of the enemy. 11 And the waters covered their adversaries; not one of them was left. 12 Then they believed his words; they sang his praise. (Psalms 106:6-12)