This morning when the alarm clock interrupted my slumber, I did what millions of others do in the same situation – I hit snooze, got out of bed 15 minutes later, rubbed my eyes, and started thinking about the upcoming day. I checked my calendar for appointments, thought through my to-do list, noted the hardest parts, then laid back down on my bed and thought, “I don’t want to do it today. I just want to go back to bed.”
Some days are hard, aren’t they? Some days I feel like running away, smashing my phone, and entering the witness protection program. The thing that keeps me from doing that is the truth of Galatians 1:1 – I don’t belong to me. I can’t run off and change my name, because my name is no longer my own. It’s already been changed. I belong to Jesus.
Once upon a time, Paul bragged about his name. Everyone knew it. His contemporaries cheered it. His fellow Jews revered it. His enemies trembled at it. Saul, as he was then known, got out of bed in the morning to build his kingdom, and it was an impressive kingdom.
As he writes Galatians, those days are a distant memory. He has a new name; a new reputation; a new purpose. He has given his life to Jesus, and now he can say, “I am not writing this letter because of my own power. I was not appointed an apostle by any group of people, but by Jesus Christ himself and by God the Father. I work for them, and this letter is the result of that.”