Day 20 – He is Freedom
This past week I was in a meeting where we were discussing what it means to be free. I was thinking to myself, I can remember a time in my life that I understood the truth in the scriptures that I was free in Christ but I did not live that freedom out loud in my life. I was still fighting with myself over being afraid to be who God has made me to be. I was still worried about what everyone else thought of me. When I messed up and did wrong or committed sin I would beat myself up over it for a long time. In my mind, I would turn the details of each situation over and over in my mind, tormenting my own soul. In this meeting, I said ” I mess up all the time, every day, but I don’t feel that same sense that I use too that I am a horrible, terrible, no good, very bad person. Instead, I hear the Lord’s gentle call to come close and let Him wash me clean from the things that would make me less than His best for me. “
I no longer feel punished and condemned. I feel loved and unpunishable.
God doesn’t want to send us to hell for our wicked deeds and lost souls. He wants to save us and set us free. He is our freedom! I wrestled with this freedom for many many years. It has really come down to this. Is God who He says He is? Am I willing to believe Him over what I may feel? Will I press into the truth until my feelings respond to His love in a way that proves He is Freedom for me? This is a huge deal.
2 Corinthians 3:17-18 Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. 18 And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.
This world, the devil, and life have a way of convincing us that we will never be free of sin and death. These things want to define truth for us. But Jesus essentially has said, “I have come to overcome!” I don’t want to live life wondering and worrying about where I stand with God. He is my hope. He is the only hope I have. I was Christian captive for a long time in my walk with God because I did not know the freedom that I was actually given through Christ’s death on the cross. Jesus said, “you will know the truth and the truth will set you free.” Not just any truth but God defined truth. We can and have allowed what we see and what we experience to dictate what is true in our lives. We have believed it to the point that even when someone shows us the truth in the word of God of what Jesus has done for us, we will defend our captivity and believe that lie rather than the truth. Don’t be guilty of settling for less than what Jesus came to give you. -Tweet That!
PRAYER: Father, help us to see the truth of what Jesus did on the cross during this Lenten season. Help us to get our eyes on You and off of our circumstances. Define for us what is true.
Have we lost hope? Are we living as “Christian Captives” not knowing the truth that Jesus came to give us? Have we settled for less than what Christ came to give us? Lean into His word this day and see what He has done.
Thanks for Listening,
Starla
Sunday2Monday 
Touching on powerful realities here. This one set of revelations, received and embraced by Jesus’ people, would propel the Kingdom light-years forward.
One key is the difference between “facts” and “truth.” What we see, hear and perceive are facts, and they confine us because we think they define us. But Jesus is THE Truth, by His own confession, and as believers it His nature and authority which now define us, because they alone are eternally true about us. Isaiah, foreseeing the nature of Jesus, said of Him, “…And He will not judge by what His eyes see,nor make a decision by what His ears hear; but with righteousness He will judge…” (Is 11:3-4) There is a truth about us, and about the image-bearers we encounter every day, that transcends the imperfect “facts” that can be perceived, and God says true righteousness is to see them/ourselves as His “finished product” and call them/us to that.
Thank you, again, for compelling presentation of timeless truths.
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