Prayer Practice
Spoken Prayer – Out loud,
pray for God to speak to you through your reading. Praise God for giving us His
word. Ask the Spirit to help you read with faith, and to live out what you hear
from God through the passage.
DAILY READING
REFLECTION
We Don’t
Need No Stinking Badges
by Mary McGinnis
I love the dopamine rush,
that feel-good chemical in my brain, I get when I get to “check off” something
on my checklist. Smart phones, video games and online marketers have all learned
to engineer this type of “feel-good” experience into their technology. They do it by using virtual challenges, trophies,
awards, and badges.
Recently, I was riding on
my indoor bicycling trainer. I had to
complete certain routes to get to the next career level and earn a badge. The last route was in the Dolomite Mountains
of Italy, a complete uphill climb with steep grades for 12 ½ miles. After several hours, lots of sweat and exhausted
muscles, about a quarter of a mile from the finish line, my video connection
stopped. I could see the finish line,
and even though I was still pedaling, my avatar on the screen was not moving. I
was devastated and ANGRY! I now had no
hope of earning my badge, even after all that long, grueling, hard work.
Maybe you are not into achieving
online badges, but we all have the measuring sticks we consider our “marks of achievement,”
our “merit badges.” When we achieve certain
benchmarks, it gives us that feeling that we are special, we belong to an elite
group, we are “IN.”
In Paul’s day, many were
using the mark of circumcision as their “merit badge.” In their minds, if you were not circumcised
like God’s chosen people the Jews, you were not a part of God’s special people,
and you could not be awarded the badge of being a Christian.
This may seem foreign to us, but maybe it is like saying,
“You have to be ____________ in order to be a real Christian.”
Or “If you want to make sure you are a real Christian, you must do ______________.”
Only then will you
have achieved the badge of God’s favor.
But Paul says in so many words, “We don't need no stinking badges!” He says, none of this "merit" seeking matters.
Instead, Paul centers himself on the CROSS! In Philippians 3:8 he says,
“What
is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of
knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider
them garbage, that I may gain Christ."
We don’t need to depend upon
achievements to know we are God’s beloved children, accepted and unconditionally
loved. He has already marked us, permanently branded
us, with the indisputable, unchangeable marks of His blood shed for us on the
Cross.
He is making us NEW! Paul says, “what counts is the new creation.
Peace and mercy to all who follow this rule—to the Israel of God.
Take a few minutes to listen to this song and make it your prayer today.
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