Fresh Brewed Freedom

The circumstances of our lives do not determine our level of freedom. The level of self-governance we enjoy determines our response to the circumstances of our lives. There is a certain irony about the fact that the apostle Paul wrote some of his most compelling thoughts on freedom while in prison. He demonstrated that when we live out of the freedom of the “inner man”, we are free regardless of how it may look on the outside.

We are not alone in our struggle to be free.

We have help on the “inside” from Christ, who empowers us. After all, he is the one who paid the price for freedom for our souls. He took on the sin that so easily entangles us, fought and defeated it, that we might know the freedom his love can bring. A love that sets us free to enjoy an abundant life with God, without anger or strife, free to serve others as they have need (without manipulation), free to cast and recast our heavy cares upon him because, more than all others, he cares for us.

Sometimes we fail to recognize this until the door slams behind us and we’re back in a prison fashioned by the rules of our own making. Or even worse, we’ve lost hope for freedom and despair closes in, whispering that slavery is better anyway, and we might as well just settle in and get used to it. May it never be!

It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. The kind of freedom that gives life, not takes it. The kind that tears walls down, not builds them up. Freedom based on truth unlocks the captive heart, mind, and spirit. So let God’s love lift your heavy heart and hung-down head to show you the open door. Take your first steps of faith, and walk out into the sunlight. Trust with your whole being that when Christ sets you free, you are free indeed. Free for freedom. Walk in it. Run headlong into it. Play in the expanse of it. Laugh in the joy of it. Dance every day in the delight of it.

Enjoy the freedom of your Fresh Brewed Life!