Be Free

Jesus is the one who saves us. He is the God that we serve. I pray that God will help you and give you peace in your minds more and more. You will grow as believers because you know God and you know Jesus, our Lord. God is very powerful because he is God. He has used that power to help us. He has given us everything that we need to live in a good way. We can do things that make God happy. This is possible because now we know him. God has chosen us to be his people because he is very great and very good. Because of this, God has promised that he will do very great and valuable things for us. As a result, you can do what is right, like God does. The people who belong to this world want to do bad things. Those bad things make them become worse and worse. But God gives you the power to be free from all that. (2 Peter 1:2-4)

The power to be free from all that - those words speak volumes, don't they? We lived as slaves to sin, but now we live as free men and women, in submissive service to the one who has redeemed us. It seems like a bit of a conundrum to some - slaves before we say yes to Christ, but servants after we say yes to Christ. What is the difference? In the first case, as slaves to sin, we have no say in how we live or what we serve. As servants to Christ, we submit willingly, as free men and women - free to choose to serve rather than in bondage of service. 

How is this possible? We are given everything that we need to live in a good manner, no longer serving the sin nature within or the pull of temptation that attempts to lure us back into bondage. If we have been given everything we need, why do some still struggle so much? Perhaps it is because we haven't really let go of the chains that once held us captive! We are freed from those chains, but we hold onto them - fearful to break the connection we have with our past lives. The thing we fear most will always hold us captive. We must let go of that fear and let God give us his peace - the peace that will allow us to drop those chains and finally walk free.

God has used his power to help us - giving us more and more peace in our minds. The further we walk away from those chains of bondage, the more peace we will receive. The steps we take to be free 'from' sin are never wasted steps. We cannot redeem ourselves - Christ does that for us. We DO take steps away from those things that held us captive, though. We remove ourselves from the vicinity of sin and form a new community of 'free men and women' living this life together. As we come together in community with other believers, we discover the strength of God exists in many varying ways in each life he has touched. His strength and ability are limitless. We learn of his goodness and grace in community - the community of the 'free'. Just sayin!