It is for freedom that Christ set us free. Stand firm then and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery. Galatians 5:1

Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.2 Corinthians 3:17

 

We all want to be happy but there is a battle raging for the control of our mind. It fights on the fronts of lies about who we think we are, our past hurts, guilt over forgiven sin, fear that we haven’t kept some list of do’s and don’ts. It uses our self-image and performance to say we are inadequate. We are bound by our self-absorption and our burdens. The battle makes us slaves to our wrong thinking and habits.

 

Christ didn’t pay the price for our sin to set us free from its punishment only for us to go back to the shackles of slavery. The Word says, it is for freedom that He set us free. In other words, once freed by His grace He wants us to live in that freedom.  What does that look like on a daily basis?

 

It is believing His Word to be true and living as if it really is true. Our belief and our actions are intricately woven together. We can say we believe God, but if we don’t act on those beliefs, our actions point to what we truly believe. If I present you with a rickety old chair with one missing leg, would you sit in it? No, because you don’t believe, that is you don’t trust it will safely bear your weight. You can politely say, oh I believe it will bear my weight, but your actions will prove otherwise.

 

Likewise, we can say we believe the bible to be true. But what if we actually proclaimed it to be true by how we lived! God says He loves you. When you feel unloved will you believe His love for you? When you feel abandoned will you believe without a doubt that He is near? When you feel lost and confused in a noisy world, can you sit in silence and listen for His voice? When temptation comes knocking at your door can you believe he will show you the way to keep the door shut? When you feel like a failure, can you hear Him cheering you on? When you feel like you are fighting a battle on all sides, will you choose to believe that He goes before you, He is your rear guard and He is by your side? That all you have to do is stand firm, and he will do the fighting for you?

 

The things that would enslave us fall down when we pick up the bible and say we’re going to live in the power of Christ, believing it to be really practically true in our life. Trade the yoke of slavery to fears and doubts for resting in God’s faithful arms and be free.