What is true freedom?
In my lifetime I have known individuals who had fewer possessions than I have but had more freedom than I did. I have known people who had poorer health than mine, but more joy. At the same time I have been in difficult situations while being engulfed in perfect peace. Could it be that true freedom is the ability to live above one’s circumstances? Could it be that this kind of freedom could help a person actually change their circumstances?
What about the prisons of jealously, envy, hatred and lust? Is it possible to be enslaved by your own money, power, possessions and popularity?
Back in the sixties I thought that freedom meant freedom from responsibility. That is not what I am talking about now. I have at times taken upon myself too much responsibility. I do need to be free from that. And yet being responsible for my family is truly fulfilling. I would not want to released from serving my family and my community, as long as I understand that all things are not under my control.
Sometimes I would like to be free from this fight for personal freedom! What do I mean? well, it is tempting at times to give in to my weaker nature and drop out. Let everything around me fall apart, like it seems to want to anyway. I can dwindle away the hours on Youtube and try and forget about the important things. Then I become a prisoner of my own laziness.
The opposite happens when I push aside my passive tendencies and remember what our great and wonderful Savior Jesus did for us. His obsession was to set everyone free. A part of Him resisted the fight as well, but He overcame. His freedom was found in the Father’s will. He said that doing the will of His Father was like food that nourished Him.
Freedom from myself and my selfish desires is the ultimate goal to me. I will even go so far as to say that God wants you and I to know the freedom that Jesus enjoyed. His joy was in pleasing His Father but also in liberating others from spiritual and physical bondage! He did not travel around telling the sick and the poor to accept their circumstances. He preached to them about the Kingdom of God which is a realm of spiritual and physical freedom! He healed their minds, bodies and their souls. He said those who believed in Him could do these works and even greater.
If we fight to gain total freedom in Christ, this promise could be true for us as well!
Hiya Dan. Good words here. What we have come to expect from your hand.
Everywhere we turn there are major struggles on every level of society and church. What will the new year hold? Will freedom come under fire as it has in the past? I often wonder.
Consider: If God intended to make everyone happy and free, then we must say he has failed. (Humanly speaking in ignorance, I am saying.)
Most people are restless, anxious, and NOT happy. But the Merciful Almighty Creator is not to be blamed. Jesus came to give abundant life. Not to condemn this world but to save a vast multitude which no man can number. So, the fault lies elsewhere.
If the Son makes us free – we shall be free indeed. And in so doing, his laws will become exactly as James taught us in his ancient letter: “The law of liberty.”
So let us love one another. Which is the fulfilling of the law. Freedom and joy will follow.
David, these are wonderful words:
“If the Son makes us free – we shall be free indeed. And in so doing, his laws will become exactly as James taught us in his ancient letter: “The law of liberty.”
So let us love one another. Which is the fulfilling of the law. Freedom and joy will follow.”