Galatians 4:21-31

Galatians 4:21-31 
English Standard Version (ESV) 

  So Paul is expecting his readers to be well-schooled in their knowledge of the Old Testament.  He's setting up a contrast, and he does so utilizing a story that most of the Galatians would have known.  Abraham and Sarah were married, and God had promised Abraham many offspring in Genesis 15.  Well, by Genesis 16, they were tired of waiting on God to fulfill God's promises, so Sarah thought she could secure God's promises through her own methods -- she convinced Abraham to have a child with her servant, Hagar.  As you can imagine, this doesn't go well.
  So Hagar, the servant, bears a child, but through the efforts of Abraham and Sarah to obtain God's promise on their own.  This child, Paul says, represents one choice.  This child is not the child of the promise that God assured Abraham would come.
  The other child, the miraculous child that Abraham and Sarah had in their old age, the child that came in God's time -- that is the child that Paul is referring to as the free child, the other path for the Galatians to follow.  This is the way that Paul is inviting the Galatians on -- a way that is free and a gift from above, not earned or grasped, but received with gratitude.
  Faith is a gift, to be received and lived with gratitude.  We don't figure it out on our own or earn it -- we receive it, regardless of how unworthy we may be, and let gratitude transform us.  God is good, and blessings are poured upon us.  So don't beat yourself up for not figuring out your life in faith -- take a deep breath, remember that it is a gift, and spend some time in prayer thanking God for what God has done for you.  We're all struggling to know just how to live best, but God is still calling us, still loving us, still receiving us.  We are a work in progress, but God has pronounced the final word over us when God ascended the cross and died to save us from our sins!