Living in Freedom

On our plane ride to Dubai I was really struggling with letting a fear from my past control me. The past month or so this had been growing. I had a chance to talk to Abby about it before I left which was really helpful but I dreamt about it on the plane. I woke up and I was frankly a little mad I was still focusing on this. So I just rebuked it and it went away. The most amazing peace flooded over me and I was in freedom. I love that I can’t explain it other than God. God took away the fear and the bondage instantly and began healing my heart. God’s freedom and His peace is astounding.

This is something I wrote after this:

We often allow ourselves to fall into bondage to something—a past mistake we keep reliving, doubts, fears, distractions. We all have them. We can name many of them at the drop of a hat and others we don’t even realize we are in bondage to until we are so deeply enslaved we can’t see the way out. We allow these bondages to become our gods. We settle for mediocrity knowing full well we can be free and are called to be free. We say “it is our cross to bear” (a total misunderstanding of what this phrase actually means) and can’t imagine life without our strange and twisted security blanket. With the amount of times I’ve struggled with this, you’d think I’d have it figured out by now that Christ’s freedom is so much better than what I chose to live in. But thank God for His forgiveness and grace! My mistakes keep reminding me I need a Savior.

Paul tells the church in 2 Corinthians there is so much more to life than the bondage they’ve allowed themselves to fall into. He loves the church too much to let them keep living in slavery. We are to God the aroma of Christ (2:15). We aren’t the smell of death but of Christ now. We are new creations (5:17). “Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom” (3:17). We are the temple of the living God (6:16) and the temple is where the LORD lives. So why is it we allow ourselves to live in fear and bondage? What is holding us back from the true freedom Christ intended for us? We are told the Holy Spirit gives us power (Acts 1:8, John 14). He is the one who helps us overcome these things that hold us down. It is a two person work though. We have to be working alongside the Spirit allowing Him to change us from the inside out. We have to surrender control so He can free us.

The reason we are to get rid of this bondage is because of the price Christ paid to free us. We were intended to live with Christ (5:4). When we are living as we are intended, we flourish amazingly. Abby told me a story of a tulip in Alaska. Because it received sunlight 24 hours a day, its beauty shone forth in a way it does not in our climate. It was living in the sunlight it was created for and it shone that much more radiantly for it. When we are living in Christ’s love and understand who He is, we shine so much more brightly. It is Christ’s love that compels us (5:14).

But stand strong! When we are discouraged, God is our great Comforter (7:6). Godly sorry brings about repentance and not regret (7:10). We aren’t to look back to what held us down like the Israelites did in the desert as they looked back with a fondness to their slavery in Egypt. Not only does God comfort us with the Great Comforter but He also sends people to encourage us (7:6). Paul was harassed physically and emotionally but God comforted Him and sent Titus to comfort him as well. He encourages the Corinthian church with this: “I have great confidence in you; I take great pride in you. I am greatly encouraged; in all our troubles my joy knows no bounds.” When we are in need of comfort and encouragement, we only need ask. The Great Comforter will respond. He’ll place people in our path to encourage us as well.