Made For Freedom
God made the world and then He made people to live in it. God gave His creation free will from the beginning. Free will is the ability to choose. God gave Adam the ability and the space to name the animals. God gave Adam and Eve dominion over the land and said they can do anything, but eat from a certain tree. God, in His loving kindness, gave them a choice on what to do. He doesn’t want robots. He wants His children to freely accept, or deny, what He has to give them. With freedom comes consequence from our choices at times.
However, with freedom we get to choose if we want to live in our shame or learn from it.
Since this world is imperfect, and so are we, we will experience feeling neglected, rejected, and left out of things. Yet, we don’t have to settle for that feeling. Even though we may experience all those things, in Jesus, we have purpose for going through it! God tells us that He chose us! John 15:18-19 states, “If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.” We even see in Hebrews 11:13 how the people before us “acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth.” In addition, Jesus is familiar with hate and not fitting in. Jesus, as the Son of God, had high status in heaven so Him coming to this world, and being mistreated by His own creation, is a low that no one else can ever relate to. He didn’t even sin, but He took on all the sins of the world. Jesus took the place of each sinner, taking on the punishment we deserve, so that we could have freedom in Him!
Freedom comes with a perspective change and the assurance that the Lord has called YOU!
You may struggle with identity, anxiety, depression, comparison, substance abuse, toxic relationships—whatever it may be, God has freedom waiting for you through the cross!
Our prayer should be, “change our view to look to You.” That can bring freedom in knowing that we aren’t perfect, but He is! First Corinthians 1:27-31 confirms that, “God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world…so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. And because of him you are in Christ Jesus..righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.” Therefore, when you feel least equipped, He has called you. When you feel least worthy, He has called you. All because it is His doing and His love that redeems you and makes you worthy! Again and again God has used the least likely people, no matter what they have done, to do amazing things for His Kingdom!
The Lord doesn’t let anything get in the way of having His people draw near to Him!
God has always used His Spirit, through His people, “to proclaim good news to the poor..proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed..” and so much more (Luke 4:18-19). As it is said in 2 Corinthians 3:17, “..where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.” With the Lord, freedom is always an option. No matter what you feel may have a hold on you, God is greater! He is all powerful, and He fights on your behalf! Jesus already died to free each person from the root of all that we deal with which is sin, death, and the devil. Yet, He still will work in your everyday life. You get to live in the freedom that He has bought for you!
How can you live in the freedom He has given you? In John 8:31-32 Jesus tells us, ““If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”” You need to know God’s Word and learn more about who He is, how He works, and what He promises to you- then you can walk in freedom!
