Remember the freedom you felt when you got your driver’s license for the first time? Or when you moved out of your parent’s house and got a place of your own? Remember how great it felt to do what you wanted, when you wanted, and set your own rules?
I think that freedom is a small taste of the kind of freedom God wants us to have. The apostle Paul talks about it this way in the book of Galatians:
“Christ has freed us so that we may enjoy the benefits of freedom. Therefore, be firm in this freedom, and don’t become slaves again.” – Galatians 5:1 (GW)
Here’s what Paul is trying to tell believers in this passage:
We are freed by Christ to be free in Christ. So why don’t more Christians act like they’re free?
Why do we shackle ourselves to rules like how long our hair should be, whether or not we should have tattoos, the best time to spend with God is only in the morning, how many hours we should be at “church” each week, and stuff like that.
I think it’s because, in some ways, we trust those things more than trust God’s promises.
It’s not that we don’t think the Bible means what it says or that we think God is playing mind games with us. Most of the time that’s not it.
It’s easier to believe we have to keep a bunch of rules to keep God’s favor in our lives than to believe it’s all a free gift.
It’s kind of our weird way of paying Him back. Nobody likes to feel like they owe somebody else. We either like to pay our debt or stay away from the person we owe so we don’t have to be reminded of what we owe.
But that’s not how God operates.
Our problem is we know this “deal” from God is too good to be true. And it is too good. But it is true.
Don’t let somebody else’s rules get in the way of the freedom that comes from God’s rule in your life.
You and I were freed to be free.
What’s something you need to free yourself from right now so you can more fully experience the freedom that comes from letting God rule in your life?
Jeff McClung 