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!

Freedom is never partial

Jesus said to the people who believed in him, “You are truly my disciples if you remain faithful to my teachings. And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” “But we are descendants of Abraham,” they said. “We have never been slaves to anyone. What do you mean, ‘You will be set free’?” Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave of sin. A slave is not a permanent member of the family, but a son is part of the family forever. So if the Son sets you free, you are truly free. (John 8:31-36)

Remain faithful to his teachings - then you will know the truth that truly sets you free. We might say freedom is just a bit conditional - it requires faithfulness to the teachings of Christ. Sometimes we trust in all kinds of 'other things' to help us 'live free', but religious pursuit without right relationship with God is just a pursuit without a proper aim. What things are you a slave to today? What beliefs hold you back from really pursuing God as you should? When we begin to explore the answers to those two things, we might just begin to see how 'bound' we really are - like slaves.

Truth has a way of setting us free, but we must desire freedom. For a very long time, I struggled with very negative thoughts about myself. I didn't see myself as 'worth much', so I never really thought others could see me any differently. Somewhere in my early twenties, God showed me the truth - that I was lovely in his eyes, and that my 'value' or 'worth' was not anything close to what I had set myself up to believe. In fact, it was much greater than I had told myself repeatedly all those years. The moment I began to trust God to reveal my 'true value', the journey toward really being free happened. 

Some of us latch onto things others have declared to us to be 'truth', but we never 'test the truth' to see if it really matches what God says about the matter. We just go on believing a lie because we don't put forth the effort to discover the truth. Jesus told his followers they had to 'remain faithful' to his teachings. That meant they had to apply themselves to not only hearing them but getting them into their hearts and minds so they could affect the way they lived. Truth should affect choices - it also affects perceptions. What we perceive about ourselves, and others is oftentimes incorrect. We need that 'perception' to be set right.

When we begin to embrace what God says about us, we begin a journey from slavery into freedom. It is not a freedom to do as we please, but to begin to do what pleases him. In so doing, we find ourselves not 'doing' because we are told to do something, but 'doing' because we genuinely know that in 'doing' we find absolute freedom and purpose. The slave 'does' because he is told to, but the free man 'does' because he wants to. Begin to get God's word into your mind and see if it doesn't begin to affect your heart. Once it does, your actions will be transformed. We are set free to live free - not partially, but totally. Just sayin!