Freedom is something we have all experienced in America in one form or fashion. We are free to choose what we say, what we listen to, what we do, what we wear, where we can go (within reason). I think we have made freedom an ambiguous term, as our civil liberties are conditional, and I do not think that we are truly free anymore. This is not a political commentary, just an observation. When I think about freedom in America, we are more free than people in other places in the world. Also, though we may be more free than others in the rest of the world, we are still in bondage.
We are in bondage to materialism. We are in bondage to money. Our personal debts are evidence of bondage as we have become a nation of debtors. Yet, I do not want to focus on money, desires, materialism, or the evident struggle our great nation is going through. I want to examine what it means to be free in Christ. What do you think it means, to be free in Christ?
Jesus told the Jews who He was speaking to, who believed what He said in John 8:31, that, "If you abide in My word, your are My disciples indeed." Part of being free in Christ in contingent on our belief in what He says is true, and receiving Jesus to be the Truth in our lives. Jesus continued speaking, saying "And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." John 8:32-- We know that Jesus is the Truth because he tells us in John 14:6 "I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me."
I don't think there is anything else we can do to gain God's favor, or receiving healing in our lives, or freedom except when we come to Jesus, and ask Him to work in our hearts. Healing does not come from reading a self-help book, except one, the Bible. Freedom and healing come from Jesus. It comes from recognizing sin in your life. If you don't know what sin is, it is missing God's righteous expectation of us to live according to what He has commanded us. In James, it tells us this about sin, "Therefore, to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin." James 4:17 Jesus is the only one who can set us free from the bondage of sin. The stuff I mentioned in the beginning, I believe, is the result of sin running rampant in our lives. Whether we acknowledge it or not, sin keeps you from being free.
Do not let yourself be deceived by things the world says. The person in the world will say there is nothing wrong or, "There is no need to worry, everything is all right." It is this kind of deception that many will fall away from God, and seek to do their own thing, to try and cover up their sin. Even believers stumble when pride comes in to the picture. A believer in Christ who does not listen, and do what the Bible says, is not free. At the beginning of this entry, I mentioned that Jesus said if we "abide" in His word, we are free. What does it mean to abide? Some translations might use the word "remain."
Don't let your heart be hardened when God speaks to you. This is another reason that we fall in to bondage, and into sin, is that we harden our hearts. It is one of the reasons the people of Israel journeyed through the desert for 40 years. And, another consequence of what happened to Pharaoh in Egypt. You cannot be free if you have a hardened heart. You cannot be free if you are in sin. You cannot be free if you have unforgiveness towards another person.
Don't let your heart be hardened when God speaks to you. This is another reason that we fall in to bondage, and into sin, is that we harden our hearts. It is one of the reasons the people of Israel journeyed through the desert for 40 years. And, another consequence of what happened to Pharaoh in Egypt. You cannot be free if you have a hardened heart. You cannot be free if you are in sin. You cannot be free if you have unforgiveness towards another person.
The freedom that Jesus gives us is to worship Him with all our hearts. It is a freedom that removes the weight of the world. It is a freedom that empowers us to walk with hope and a renewed spirit. If you are walking in Christ, He has made you free. You are healed spiritually. You don't have to do anything else to be free. You only need to ask Jesus to bring that freedom in to your life. If you have Jesus living in your heart you are free to love others as Jesus has loved you. You are free from the law of sin and death.
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