Freedom

Having just celebrated July 4^th with family, friends that have become family, food, fireworks and fun, thoughts of what we are celebrating has been rolling around in my mind. Like any other holiday in America, we get caught up in the festivities and lose sight of the reason for them.  To really get a grasp of what it is to be free, I think it is important to understand what it means to be in bondage; to lack the freedom that we so often take for granted. As time marches on, we have run out of living ancestors that can tell us about their great uncle sharing the story of hearing the church bells peel the warning that the British were coming, or their grandmothers stories of being a slave on the plantation. There are amazing stories in our county’s history that remind us of how the freedom that we enjoy today is not free at all, but came at the cost of so many lives.

As I ponder this, I find myself reflecting on the freedom that we can experience because of the ultimate sacrifice of Jesus. Again, this is a freedom with a great significance that we struggle to grasp 2000 years after Calvary. As I listened to Sunday’s sermon I reflected about how tangled up we get in our thoughts and attitudes… Thoughts that become shackles to us, imprisoning us in a cell of darkness. Maybe they are negative attitudes about ourselves, our spouse, our parents or children, or even people who don't look or dress like us. Perhaps unkind opinions of others lock us up in a very ill-fitting Judges robe. Perhaps we are tied up in the bondage of what others may think of us…and our need to “fit in.” Worry may become our default setting and we find our mind trapped in the world of, “…but what if..?”

The freedom that we have in Christ is a freedom from the negativity that easily becomes our greatest source of bondage and has a most dramatic impact on our home. How can we truly love our spouse when we have become a slave to the notion that they aren’t measuring up to what we feel we deserve? We have essentially taken our union and shattered it with our bondage to self-pity or jealousy or any number of unhealthy attitudes. How can we be good examples to our children when we are entangled in the busyness that takes our focus from our role as the spiritual guide for our kids? How will we teach them to follow Jesus when we are spending all our energy trying to keep up with the proverbial Jones’?

Life is complicated. I wish it wasn’t. I wish it was our default setting to simply meditate on Jesus and His Word, listen to His Spirit as it speaks to ours, and follow Him each moment of our lives. Sin, however, entered the picture and broke that union and now we all seem to struggle to find that unity that brings us the freedom that we crave so badly. Jesus came to fix that brokenness; however, we still struggle with our desire to do things our way rather than His. Over and over we find ourselves in bondage to our calendar, our relationships, our bills, our possessions, our attitudes, our expectations. None of those things bring us peace or make us better followers of Jesus.

James, the half brother of Jesus, essentially tells us that if we claim to be followers of Jesus, we need to put our actions where our mouth is. We can’t claim to be believers and followers of the way of Christ if we don’t live that way. Living in bondage to the things of this life… this culture… means that we haven’t truly yoked ourselves with the One we call Lord. If your love for Him doesn’t show in your relationship with your spouse, you are saying one thing and living another. If it doesn’t show in the decisions you are making for your children, then you are not raising them to follow Him. They will be very confused hearing one directive and watching you go on an opposing path.

James tells of Abraham and how his faith was turned into action when he was able to clearly hear the voice of God telling him to give up that gift for which he and his wife had prayed for decades and obey God in what was no doubt the most difficult moment of his life (Genesis 15).  He recounts the story of Rahab, a woman who barely knew of the One True God, yet risked everything to do His bidding because her faith caused her to believe that His way was the only safe way.

May I ask you a question? If the people in your home that watch you do life daily wanted to find Jesus, would they succeed if they followed you? Would they discover the path to loving God and others with all their heart? Would they learn how to hear the voice of God? Would they be able to determine with ease that following Jesus is the way to freedom and following the way of the world leads to bondage? Given the choice, all of us would want to know that our kids will grow up and make the decision to commit their way to the Lord and trust in Him, but we don’t always live as such.

I would encourage you to make it a practice to daily ask God to show you the areas where you have allowed the world or the ruler of this world to place you in shackles. Ask Him to unlock them and release the entire potential He placed within you when He formed you. Allow Him to teach you how to be yoked to Him so that you are most certainly walking the path He ordained for you to travel. Then you will find the freedom that He intends for His children. Freedom to be who He created us to be. Freedom to live lives that bring Glory to God. Freedom to know His way.

Live Free!