Photo taken by Meg Hays

Sunday’s message at church was all about freedom through forgiveness.  I sat stunned into silence as I listened to our associate pastor’s sermon that detailed the shackles we are bound by when we don’t obey God’s will for us to forgive others and live as He would like us to.

Wow.  I realized that she was talking about me and I would bet a million that she was talking about you, too.

Unfortunately, most of us live daily in a constant battle with obedience and therefore, stay stuck within the boundaries we set up for ourselves because of our pride, self-righteousness and stubbornness.

I’m pretty sure God wants something WAY different for us and from us.  But, how do we break out of the norm and live in the freedom God wants us to?

For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. Galatians 5:13

Basically, we have to stop living for ourselves and live FOR God.  He even gives us guidelines to live by according to His Word (the Bible) so that we will live abundantly in His freedom through obedience.

But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing. James 1:25

Yep, we are back to my ‘doing’ mantra!

So what things can we do to live freer and more for God?

1. Forgive as He has forgiven us. There are LOTS of people who don’t deserve our forgiveness, but you know what?  We don’t deserve God’s forgiveness either, but He gives it to us anyway.  (Hm.  Put like that makes me really think…argh.)
2. Serve others like Christ came to serve us. Jesus was sent from Heaven to give His life for ours so that we could be reconciled with our Almighty Father.  Christ was PERFECT and He asked God to forgive us even when we were killing him. (Okay, that just makes me feel like a big fat loser to think that I would withhold my love, kindness or forgiveness from anyone.  Especially since I’m not perfect!)
3. Help others by giving our time, talents, gifts and money. Sure, most of us our busy.  However, what are we busy doing?  Are we trying to gather up as much stuff as we can cram into our homes and storage units?  Or are we gathering up heavenly rewards by making sure the lost, lonely and least are loved, fed  and loved some more? (Good grief, I’ve got to get busy doing the RIGHT things!)

When will we realize that this life is not about US?  And living as such only binds us to earthly wants, needs and desires…that in turn make us miserable, tired and left wanting more.

Freedom through Christ is without a doubt the best way to go. He wants the best for us, so why don’t we actually LISTEN to his teachings?

I guess we are dumb. (Hee, Hee!)

But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life. Romans 6:22

There are many reasons why we disobey God, but the one reason we SHOULD obey is because God wants us to live freely, abundantly and FOREVER.

Now, just how cool is that?!

Some Wisdom for Today:  Proverbs 20:11 – Even a child is known by his actions, by whether his conduct is pure and right.