Preserve the Truth

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“But we refused to give in to them for a single moment. We wanted to preserve the truth of the Gospel message for you” (Galatians 2:5, NLT).

Insight
The fact is… the enemy wants to keep us enslaved to a rule-keeping, trying harder and driven to impress approach to life. He is not happy about your freedom in Christ and wants to reduce you, kidnap you and pull you back into an old and ineffective belief system. We must be like Paul: “determined to preserve the truth” (Galatians 2:5, NLT).
The enemy uses all kinds of old tactics to trick us. Things like fear about our reputation or for provision. He tries to get us hung up about our appearances and driven to impress others. He gets us focused on behavior and not our Savior. We get off track and spend life’s energy trying to be good, control our environments, to win approval and feel good about ourselves.
Peter struggled with this. At times he was driven to impress others and appear important. This was fueled by a fear of the opinions of man. Peter struggled with a desire to be approved, praised and accepted. These fears led him astray and pulled him away from following the truth and freedom. Eventually, he even mis-led others.
We need God’s strength to refuse to give into similar pressures. Let’s preserve the truth. Be determined to walk in freedom. Get rid of the need to impress and live by appearances. Live in this body by trusting in the Son of God, who loves you and gave himself for you (Galatians 2:20).

Prayer
Father, I want to preserve the Truth in my life. I want to walk in freedom. Strengthen me to walk free from the fear of man. Help me to avoid the enemy’s traps. I will refuse to give in. In Jesus name, AMEN.