"Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ..."
What is listed above is Paul's greeting to the church in Galatia. It was very common for Paul to introduce himself in his letters and then grant the blessings of "grace and peace." In fact when he addressed the Believers in Corinth, Phillipi, Ephesus, and Thessalonica, he uses this phrase, and almost always follows it with a reference of God and Christ.
Because it is so common in his writings, and since it's just a part of the greeting many skip over the statement not realizing the importance. But, I would like to remind us about 2 we learn from the Scriptures:
1. Grace comes before peace. We could never experience the peace of God without first realizing and accepting the grace of God.
2. Grace and peace comes from God through Christ. We may try to look to other things to give us the satisfaction and peace we desire, but true peace only comes from God through a relationship with Christ.
When we try to quench our thirst by looking to other things (alcohol, entertainment, money, success, sexual immorality, etc.), we are basically "drinking sand." What happens if you were to drink sand? Your thirst isn't quenched, it's intensified and compounded. And so it is when we try to find peace outside of God's grace given through Christ.
Jesus told the woman at the well, "...whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
In the spirit of Paul and the Gospel, I pray that you will let Jesus quench your thrist. I pray we will all experience the blessings of grace and peace from God that comes through a relationship with Jesus Christ.
On the Journey Together,
Justin
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