Journey to Jesus: Freedom

Have you ever dreaded something so much that you feel the weight of the world on your shoulders? Did you feel like that burden had been lifted once you did that thing?  You tasted freedom once it was over.  Right?

Life with Jesus is like that.  The freedom part, I mean.

I know that I have felt the heaviness of sin on my shoulders. Before Granny passed away, I was not spending time with God.  I was not listening to Him.  I was not putting Him first in my life.  I wanted what God wanted for me, but in my own selfish way.  Even good things can become idols in our lives.  That is exactly what happened to me.

I knew what was happening.  I knew that I needed to ask for forgiveness in my life.  I knew that I needed God's help to get me turned around, headed in a direction with Him.  But another sin entered my life before I could ask for that forgiveness.  It was called pride. I had too much pride in my life to ask for help.  I had heard the gentle voice calling me back to Him, but I chose to ignore it.  I wanted to do this on my own.

Do you ever look back on a situation and think to yourself how silly and stupid you were?  That would be this moment right here for me.  I WAS TOO PRIDEFUL TO ASK FOR HELP. I needed that help more than anything in the world. I needed saving.  I needed grace.  I needed love.

I am so thankful that God's ways are not my ways.  His grace comes first. He is always the first to extend that grace to me.  And oh how He lavished me with it.

Grace upon grace upon grace.

I am a work in progress.  His grace covers me first and foremost.  I do not have to come to Him completely "put together."  Then the belief of His power working in my life comes and then behavior changes--we are convicted of things He wants us to change or work on.  The farther down the journey we get with Him, the more we trust and obey Him.

As we trust and obey Jesus, He enables us to speak, live, and work for Him.

We can trust and lean on His strength to empower us to do the things that He has called us to do, no matter how scary they might be.

Living a life of freedom sometimes means being vulnerable and sharing how God has worked in my life.  It means living like I am a new creation with the emotions, thoughts, and attitudes that God gives me rather than the emotions, thoughts, and attitudes that I can adapt from the world.  It means that I need to live with Him at the center of my life--making every decision based on how He wants me to live.  And lastly, one of the hardest things I have had to learn in my fitness journey is no believing in who the WORLD says that I am, but rather finding my true worth in Christ.  


Christ came so that I may find life and freedom in Him.  He died on that cross so that I could spend eternity with Him.  I no longer have to live as a slave to sin, but rather I can live in my freedom that Christ has given me.  He has set me free from all my sin and shame.

Are you living in your freedom?  Or are you suffering in your shame?  Friend, go live in the freedom that Christ has given you!  There is nothing more refreshing that Him taking our guilt and redeeming it into something more beautiful that you could ever imagine.

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