Running in Freedom In
His Word
For
you have been called to live in freedom, my brothers and sisters. But don’t use
your freedom to satisfy your sinful nature. Instead, use your freedom to serve
one another in love. Galatians 5:13
We
live in freedom but we do not act like it do we? We walk through life with a
burden on our backs, burdens of work, of finances, of piles of ‘to do ‘lists.
Worrying about what we should do today and what to do tomorrow to be sure
tomorrow after that exists; how we want to do it all; but we forget that we are
to walk in freedom.
So
what does it mean to walk in freedom?
We
are told In His word that we are free, if so then we are free to do what we
want, correct?
And
if we are free to do what we want does that mean that we can break the laws of
God and man? No! It means we are free from doing those things. We are free to
live with a clean slate.
Being
free through Christ means that we have been reset to a point where we do not
have to carry the burdens on our backs but instead we can give them to Jesus
and let Him crush them into sand. We are also free from sin, or our sinful
human nature. In reality if you are in Christ you have no right to say “ I am
only human” as an excuse for sinning because if you are truly in Christ you
have the Holy Spirit part of God in you.
Would
we want to sin if it means we would drag Jesus right along with us?
My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So I live in
this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself
for me. Galatians 2:20
So
we do not need to sin, we are free from sin.
Do not let any part of your body become an instrument
of evil to serve sin. Instead, give yourselves completely to God, for you were
dead, but now you have new life. So use your whole body as an instrument to do
what is right for the glory of God. Sin is no longer your master, for you no
longer live under the requirements of the law. Instead, you live under the
freedom of God’s grace. Well then,
since God’s grace has set us free from the law, does that mean we can go on
sinning? Of course not! Romans 6:13-15
Even what we eat is not a sin to us, as long as
we eat within reason. As long as we do not become gluttonous, because gluttony
is a sin, but we can be free from that by learning the right living suggestions
in the Word of God. If we have a problem with over eating we can ask God to
help us to stop the problem for us.
(But suppose someone tells you, “This meat was
offered to an idol.” Don’t eat it, out of consideration for the conscience of
the one who told you. It might not be a matter of conscience for you, but it is for the other
person.) For why should my freedom be limited by what someone else thinks? If I can thank God for
the food and enjoy it, why should I be condemned for eating it? 1 Corinthians
10:20-30
When
we accepted Christ as our Savior, or agreed to make Him Lord of our lives it
gave us instant freedom from whatever would be a problem to us. Now it does not
make life perfect but it does show us what we can do!
Also
when we turn to the Lord we can talk straight to Him when we have a temptation
and ask Him to help us out of it because He has given us freedom to do so. We
no longer have to go to a priest to ask forgiveness or offer up sacrifices to
gain freedom from our sins.
But
just because we are cleaned up does not mean we can go back to the dung from
which we came. Some people when they have gotten clean and sober, accept Christ
and think that it is okay now for them to walk back in the muddy roads they
were on before and that they will not be tempted. I believe that you should not
go back to the muck and the mire once it has been taken from you.
But whenever someone turns to the Lord, the veil
is taken away. For the Lord is the Spirit, and wherever the Spirit of the Lord is,
there is freedom. So all of us who have had that veil removed can see and reflect the
glory of the Lord. And the Lord—who is the Spirit—makes us more and more like
him as we are changed into his glorious image. 2 Corinthians 3:16-18
The Veil is taken away from
the Holy of Holies and we can see God face to face. I don’t know about you but
I want to use my freedom for good! Free to live my life acceptable to God!
I don’t want to go back to
where I have been but I want to move on ahead, forward in my walk with Christ.
I do not want to pick up that burden and carry it again, I want to jump and run
and be free!
I wrote a poem back in high school about running free. It claimed "I want to run until I’m free, ‘till this whole
world is far from me…” it went on to describe how I wanted to be free to love,
free to like, free to live with people who felt the same way. Funny thing is I
did not know I was looking for Jesus then, but now that I know Him, and follow
His directions in His Word I am finding that all those things are things He
gives me!
God gave us a new life in
Christ and in doing so He directed us to His Word as a guide book. We are free
to not read it if we do not want, but personally I want to read it, I want to
pray to Him, I want to listen for His still small voice. I want to run with
Him!
Both spiritually and
physically I want to run with Jesus today.
Dear Heavenly Father, thank
You for giving us Freedom to live each day according to Your will in our lives.
Help us to walk in the paths you have for each of us, in Jesus name, amen.
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