It's what we all seek, most especially when we feel oppressed. We want to do anything we want to without hindrance or restraint. It's such a sweet thing to experience.
But spiritually speaking, no one's free. We're slaves of either two forces- sin or righteousness. A slave of sin seeks to gratify its desires. However, it's hard to get out when we want to. The only way is the power of the Cross. We begin to seek what God desires. We become slaves of righteousness. It's where we find complete peace and true freedom.
As human as we are, our fleshly nature wages war with our new nature. We've been set free from the bondage of sin, but we often go back to our old lives and be drawn to the sins that once bound us. It's because part of us loves it. Thankfully, He helps us day by day as He shapes and molds us to become what we were intended to be.
As ones who belong to Him, we know that kind of freedom. And I think it's best that we remind ourselves of what it means to be free in Him. It can be summed up by these three points:
1. We know our purpose of pursuing the freedom.
We don't want to go back to the life of darkness we used to live. We want to walk in the light. We made the decision of putting our self to death so that we can rise up to walk in the newness of life. In this newness, Christ now lives in us. We're bought with a price by our Lord and Savior. And from this comes a privilege of being His child and heir of His Kingdom, with the inheritance of eternal life.
2. We take good care of our given freedom.
We understand that God didn't set us free to live the rest of our lives in self-inflicted bondage. With the freedom we have in Him, we don't allow sin to reign in our lives. We don't allow ourselves to yield to the evil desires of our sinful nature. Through the power of the Holy Spirit, we choose to live a life pleasing to Him.
3. We live in love with the freedom we have in Him.
We manifest the way to live in His freedom. We hate anything that glorifies evil. We choose to take anything that encourages us to do good. We continually feed ourselves with the Word of God. We pray to Him about anything and everything. We devote to sincerely loving our brothers and sisters in Christ. We live in harmony with others. We serve with the intent of glorifying Him. We rejoice when tough times come our way. We remain hopeful in His goodness and faithfulness. And we keep ourselves in humility. That's how we show our love to Him.
We manifest the way to live in His freedom. We hate anything that glorifies evil. We choose to take anything that encourages us to do good. We continually feed ourselves with the Word of God. We pray to Him about anything and everything. We devote to sincerely loving our brothers and sisters in Christ. We live in harmony with others. We serve with the intent of glorifying Him. We rejoice when tough times come our way. We remain hopeful in His goodness and faithfulness. And we keep ourselves in humility. That's how we show our love to Him.
As I think of the Christian journey, I think of active alertness. We can put our full focus in our everyday living for Him, and we have the enemy who can start an attack by triggering our sinful nature. I fear for how he's going to do that. What I fear most is when a Christ-follower falls into that trap. When he feels like he couldn't stop sinning, I fear that he would be hesitant to fully surrender his life to Him to start the change. Worst case, they wouldn't believe anymore that they could live without that sin.
And it's sad that there are believers who still remain in their sin and bondage. I eventually learned of reasons for such:
- They fail to make a commitment to holiness across all areas of life.
- They fail to embrace the truth of who they are and what they have in Christ.
- They are unwilling to do whatever it takes to overcome the problem, with His unconditional love on their side.
- They fail to see the healing as a process with a purpose.
- They fail to develop an intimate relationship with Him.
- They fail to humble themselves in absolute dependence on Him.
- They fail to learn and practice spiritual warfare.
This can happen to me. This can happen to you. This can happen to anyone. But in spite of this, I rest in the hope that they can bounce back and be on track again in their walk with Him.
I can think of three things on how we can help them in this area, and here are these:
a.) Be a friend to them.
When they come to us for help in the struggle they're going through, it's a great opportunity to show them love, compassion, and grace. We help them bring back the true freedom they're meant to have and remind them of it. We empathize with them, encourage them, and challenge them if needed.
We triumph with them. We cry with them. We'll be there every step of the way until their full recovery. When they reach that point, we continue on. We take part of their life story. When we need to fence them from their sinful nature, we'll do so until they reach homeward bound in heaven.
c.) Pray for them.
It's the most reliable connection we can turn to at all times. When they go through a wrong turn, when they go through a path he's unsure of, or when they start to soar high in life, we keep them in our prayers. We keep them in His love and mercy. We have the assurance that He continues to work in them. He never gives up on them, and He will find even the deepest way to bring them to restoration.
It's also important that as we help them, we have our own support when our sinful nature triggers us backward. As people of His light, we battle together strongly for His given freedom, and that's what we live for.
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