Freedom

For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.  Galatians 5:13

Everybody’s got a word these days.  It seems to be the new New Year’s Resolution.  My word for 2018 is ___________.   If I were picking a word for this year, I would choose freedom.  It is what I most desire at this time in my life – freedom from debt, worry, bad eating habits, etc.   But what is true freedom? 

Every human has four endowments - self awareness, conscience, independent will and creative imagination. These give us the ultimate human freedom... The power to choose, to respond, to change. Stephen Covey

There are many different definitions and many different kinds of freedom.  Freedom to me, does not mean freedom to do whatever I want.  The freedom I am after is freedom from the things in my life that hold me back.  Freedom from the bondage of all these things that so heavily weigh me down.

True freedom for you may look like prison to the rest of the world.  Paul and Silas were in prison and the doors flung open.  They could have walked right out and had what one would assume is freedom.  When the guard woke up and they were still there, he didn’t understand.  To others it may have seemed that freedom was given to them but they didn’t choose to take it.  The truth is that they really did choose freedom because they knew that staying in that cell was God’s plan.  Freedom doesn’t always mean the gates open.  Sometimes freedom is found inside the gates.  They knew it was right to stay when it looked so wrong to everyone else, but it served God’s purpose and plan.

Freedom from sin begins in our hearts and exists only in Jesus Christ.  Through change in our heart and His forgiveness comes freedom from sin.  Only when our heart is changed can freedom come.  Maybe my word for this year needs to be change instead of freedom because freedom only comes with change, never apart from it.  

All true and lasting freedom comes from Jesus, and only when we give it to Him and leave it.  I can fix (or with the help of others) problems temporarily but until I give them to Jesus, they are not fixed, and I am not really free. 

Give. Forgiveness. Change. Freedom.

Scripture to Claim:

But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life.