Just How Free Are You?
There are so many times that I hear “Christianity has a bunch of rules, and I just want to be free to do what I want!” But what I would like to ask you is this: just how free are you? Many of my friends (and myself I might add) have had to learn the hard way. Being “free” isn’t as free as it sounds. Jesus even warned in John 8:34 that “everyone who commits sin is the slave of sin.” So is this true? Are you really a slave to your sin?
For anyone who has ever used drugs or alcohol, it is an easy question to answer. How free do you feel when you are too drunk to drive your car? How free do you feel when you are so hooked on a drug you can’t go a day without using it? How free do you feel when you can’t even eek out an intelligent sentence because you are way to wasted? Your free choices have now freely put you right into your own prison.
The truth is you can be free! Jesus said “If the Son sets you free you shall be free indeed” (John 8:36). Not only that, but He came so that you may have life, and that you may have it more abundantly (John 10:10). We need to remember that God has our best interests in mind. “For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments; and His commandments are not burdensome” (1 John 5:3). These commandments are not to strap you down, but so that you may live a life free of the slavery of sin. Remember, there will be people that will try to tell you the opposite. “For speaking out arrogant words of vanity they entice by fleshly desires, by sensuality, those who barely escape from the ones who live in error, promising them freedom while they themselves are SLAVES of corruption; for by what a man is overcome, by this he is enslaved” (2 Peter 2:18-19, emphasis added).
What we need to do is make a decision that we are going to be free in Christ. He will lead you beside still waters. He will be there so you do not fall into the prison of drugs or alcohol. He “will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, so that you will be able to endure it” (1 Corinthians 10:13). So please, come to the mercy seat of Christ and see “where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom” (2 Corinthians 3:17).
Chad
