It was for freedom....

So often I hear women say they want to live a life free in Christ, yet they have no idea how to do it.  I am so guilty of saying, and thinking, the same things.  My heart longs for nothing more than to truly be free in Christ and not burdened with my flesh.  This sounds like such a beautiful life, right?  No stress.  No worries.  Just… bliss.

Then the alarm goes off and we are snapped back into reality.  We are not able to balance the reality of life with the freedom of Christ.  For some reason society has convinced us that the two are incompatible and we must simply accept a stress-filled life.  And so we continue living in bondage and slavery, content to be miserable.

Should we continue this life???

Please allow me to quote Paul for a moment…. BY NO MEANS!!!!

Breaking that down a little… absolutely not!  There is no good reason to continue to live a life of misery when Christ sacrificed everything to set us free!

Let's jump into Romans 6…  Paul explains it all so well….

For we know that our old self was crucified with Him in order that sin’s dominion over the body may be abolished, so that we may no longer be enslaved to sin, since a person who has died is freed from sin’s claims. Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with Him,  because we know that Christ, having been raised from the dead, will not die again. Death no longer rules over Him.  For in light of the fact that He died, He died to sin once for all; but in light of the fact that He lives, He lives to God. So, you too consider yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus.

When we live daily in bondage and slavery, we are living daily in sin.  Paul reminds us here that we died to our old selves and are made alive in Christ.  We are not to continue living in sin, but to live in Christ.  This is a choice that we must make daily. 

Will there always be stress?  YES!  But the key to freedom is how we handle the stress.

Will there always be baggage?  YES!  But we don't have to keep picking it up and carrying it around.

Will there always be heartache?  YES! But we can allow Christ to heal our hearts rather than carry around the broken pieces.

Will there always be drama? YES! But we don't have to allow it to consume our lives. 

Will there always be meals to cook, diapers to change, schedules to coordinate, friends to talk to, arguments with spouses, disagreements with friends, bad attitudes, illness, death, fear, uncertainty, questions, shattered dreams….  YES! YES! YES!  These things will always be in our lives.  However, we do not have to let them control us!

Learning to see Christ in our everyday mundane is the beginning of freedom.  Knowing that the small things in life matter.  Trusting that even when life is hard, God is working in the background doing amazing things we may not see with our own eyes.  Believing that even the smile we give to a stranger made a difference.  Reminding ourselves that even though life gets out of control, God is still in control. 

Want to know a secret????  The more we chose to walk in freedom, the more God will increase our courage!  He will make us brave!  He will use us in ways we could not begin to imagine. 

So live free in Christ!  Allow him to break those chains and you hold your head high.  Don't allow the little things to hold you down, but allow them to lift you up.


Let this song sink deep in your heart today....   Break Every Chain - Jesus Culture