What Living in Freedom Can Look Like

A few days ago (and into this weekend for many of us!) our country celebrated Independence day. Summer is in full swing, the weather is beautiful and many of us are enjoying some days off. There are so many gifts all around, right? 

And yet, even a more whole-life kind of freedom is ours as Christians!

But how often do we find ourselves somehow still under the bondage of some kind of sin? How do we apply Paul’s words, inspired by the Holy Spirit, to these situations and really live freely? 

I’ve been praying over this not just for myself and my family, but also for our community. Hopefully some of the things I have learned and been reminded of will encourage you to keep walking in this freedom too!

Our old self, Paul reminds us, is dead. While death usually isn't something to celebrate, in this case I think it deserves some fireworks to mark the occasion! I don’t know about you, but who I would have been without Christ is someone I never want to be! Knowing that when we align ourselves with the Lord we align ourselves with the truth that the deeply-broken-by-sin-self was buried along with him over 2,000 years ago. He died knowing exactly who he wanted each of us to be without sin in this world, the flesh and the devil dragging us back into the mud. So the next time you and I are tempted to fall back into old sinful patterns of living, let’s remind ourselves “that part of me is buried, now!”

The verb used for “free” in this verse is in the passive tense- meaning we did not free ourselves, we were freed by Christ’s loving sacrifice. If you’re like me, sometimes that prideful human nature shows it’s face here. I start thinking I have to now keep myself free too. Friends, if only God can set us free, only He can keep us free! So let’s not be like the stubborn animals, as Scripture says, who need to be forced to remember this (Psalm 32:9). Spending time in Scripture is one of the best ways to remember that we can’t free or keep ourselves free from sin and death. God’s Word is full of reminders of stories of victories when people trusted God and disasters when they did not.

How sweet these reminders are for us, friends. We pray this week that as you go throughout your days, God brings this verse to remembrance to you and reminds you of how powerful he is!

Please feel free to share here one way God showed himself powerful in your life! If you're joining our community in this week's memory verse, happy memorizing!