Live Freely

Do you ever feel like you aren’t free? You love Jesus, you know Him (pause here: if you’ve confessed Him for who He is, believed with your heart, then you do – see Romans 10:9), but somehow, still feel bound up… sound familiar?

My verse this morning in my quiet time was:

Live as free people, but don’t hide behind your freedom when you do evil.

Instead, use your freedom to serve God. 1 Peter 2:16

I started thinking about aaaalllll the other people who do this ‘evil’. I began to think of instances and places, and as I was going on with this list in my head of what ‘evil’ is, I was ever so kindly reminded by Holy Spirit that before Jesus changed me, I was evil. To be gut-level honest, I still can be at times. It’s my nature. I’m a human. Sound familiar?

As I began journaling, I’d like to share what I wrote with you:

“Lord, forgive me as this can describe me perfectly – justifying my evil because of the Great Gift you have given me. For me when all I can think of is myself. Forgive me when there’s much to be done for the Kingdom, and I choose to sit on my tail or play with my phone. Forgive me for pointing the finger at others when I haven’t been a good leader. Forgive me for being short-tempered with my family as I let myself get overwhelmed by things that don’t really matter… “

Can I get a witness?

Evil doesn’t have to be the seven deadly sins, it can be anything anything our flesh wants us to be outside of who we know God wants us to be… We can get so wrapped up in our own worlds that we forget there are others dying, not just a physical death (cause we all are) but a spiritual death. I’ve been following my friend, Brock Gill, this week as he ministers through his gift of illusion and evangelism in Nicaragua throughout prisons, mental wards, the least of these. He’s walking outside his own comfort zone only to find that there’s so much more freedom as we depend on the Lord for more.

So how do we live freely? We serve God. We use the freedom we’ve been given by grace through faith to love and to serve, and we stop using the freedom of grace through faith to walk into sin just ‘one more time’. It’s a hard truth. I am no different from you. It’s a constant, every day, reminder. Will we mess it up at times? Yes. Will we receive mercy in Jesus. Yes. But that gives us no license to go there again. When we realize just what Christ has saved us from, there’s no desire to go back; and if you do have that desire, begin to remember what He’s saved you from. Begin to thank Him. Begin to walk in that freedom.