Freedom

It's morning and I'm laying in bed praying. God is speaking to me about freedom. The wind is blowing fiercely outside; I can hear it shaking the trees nonstop. The sky is blue, cold and crisp, and I'm looking at a single leaf being blown across the blue backdrop. And I think to myself, I don't want to be like that leaf. It has no direction, no boundaries. It looks lost.

And God continues to speak. That leaf is free. That is what I have for you. Free like a stallion bounding through fields; unrestrained by rider or bridle. But Lord, I don't want to be like that leaf. Look at it. It has no direction just being blown around. And then the explanation comes. That leaf is not directionless, its path is not a random, pointless travel. It is being brought exactly where the wind wants it to go. 

And so it is with my children. They are free, unrestrained. Led by my Spirit, carried by my freedom into boundless skies and magnificent opportunities.

But we like our boundaries, don't we? We feel like they keep us safe. We set up traffic cops in our lives to keep us in line. If we had no guidelines, we'd go off the deep end; drift horribly away from our God. So we set up these traffic cops of guilt, fear, oppression and regret to keep us on the tight leash we need. We build walls of rules and you'd better not's. All this built on the foundation of fear; all not understanding the power of love.

But God is love, and He drives out fear.

The bottom line is relationship. All that God has done is for relationship's sake. Because He so loves us and so desires to know us and be with us, He travels through the heavenly dimensions and crashes space and time with His presence in the form of a man. A man that can relate to us. His name is Jesus. Jesus is proof of God's desire to relate to us.

We can think that we maintain good standing with God abiding by rules, or by surrounding ourselves with do's and don'ts. Our effort. Our flesh. It gives us a sense of accomplishment. But that is not relationship. And that is not freedom. Freedom comes when we realize that He has put a good heart in us; a heart that will respond to His love. A heart that doesn't want to hurt the Father. A heart that knows it is loved.

Think about it. What if God were to say anything goes. Do anything you want and you will not suffer My wrath or any sort of consequence. Would you murder that annoying neighbor? Would you cheat on your spouse. Would you steal from your neighbor. Think about it. This question is the barometer that measures the condition of your relationship with Him.

Are you willing to trust the heart God has given you, the new heart, to do the right thing? Do you believe you can fly free like the leaf blowing far above being carried by the wind? It's God's plan for your life. He wants you to be free. He paid for your freedom. But as long as we live under the laws, under the performance based relationship, we will not experience that kind of freedom.

The truth is, God trusts your heart more than you do. Will you let Him bring you to that place of freedom? Ask Him to. For some of us, it will be more difficult than others. But God is able. In fact, He is the only one that can give that kind of freedom. It's called grace, and it's calling you. 

Will you respond?




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