Hang Onto Your Freedom....You Were Born To It!

I chose the photo for today's post very thoughtfully. I took the picture at sunset on Siesta Key back in January. There is nothing more freeing than a walk on the beach! If you look very closely you can make out a bird flying in the foreground of the vast expanse of sky. He or she is most free! Just enjoying their time in the sky.

We talk a lot about freedom. People have died for it on many a battlefield. Countless books have been written on the subject, both political and spiritual. The mental health industry (and yes, it IS an industry. If you don't believe me, take a gander at what your insurance company pays your psychiatrist.) has churned out enough material on freedom from emotional and mental bondage to fill many, many football stadiums end to end. And yet most people are still wearing chains of one ilk or the other.

There's a reason for that. For so many people, bondage is what feels normal. Once they begin to get a little bit free, panic overwhelms them and they scurry back into their chains. Let's use one of my lifetime struggles as an example. If you are carrying a load of depression on your back and Jesus lifts that load, just plain takes it from you, you are infused with joy, which brings strength and vitality. The world is now your oyster, and there are many opportunities for  you to succeed and to enjoy life to the fullest. The world is now very large, and fraught with many possibilities. Frightened and disoriented by the magnitude of it all, you scurry to and fro until you have found your former depressive mantle and shrugged that two-ton bad boy back on. You're miserable again, but it's a familiar miserable.

This phenomenon may be, in part, why God says in Galations 5:1, "It is FOR FREEDOM that Christ has set us free. Stand firm then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery." (Holy Bible, New International Version, emphasis mine.) He was up in heaven watching folks take up their chains again and again. He is saying here that he set us free for us to, oh, I don't know, REMAIN FREE, maybe? This signifies a choice in the matter.

I am not against self-help books, though some will, in fact, lead you astray. Those that introduce any spirituality apart from Jesus Christ are dangerous and will leave your spirit more scrambled than the eggs you had this morning. Run like the wind from them. The best way to remain free is to wash your mind in the Word of God every single day. Every. Single. Day. As you go through your day, recite to yourself specific scriptures that relate to your struggles and cry out to God at times of temptation. These methods work, and work well WHEN APPLIED CONSISTENTLY. Surround yourself with godly people. They will help you on to your goal of spiritual growth. Stay focused on what Jesus is doing (reigning supreme over your circumstances, fighting your battles, empowering you and crowning you with favor) and replace every negative thought the devil sends your way with five thanks you's to Jesus for all of the above!

Be free in Christ and, MOST IMPORTANTLY, stay there!!!!