There’s a widely held misconception that giving one’s life to God is stifling and restrictive. The enemy of our souls, the devil knows our Achilles heel, playing the same game since the Garden of Eden. He seeds doubts in our minds that we are missing out or being controlled by trusting God and he’s aptly nicknamed the “deceiver.” In the name of freedom, he offers pleasurable vices filled with hooks to entrap us. Let’s never forget that God gave humans unrestricted freedom of choice in the Garden of Eden and gave them the wisdom to choose right. Adam and Eve made the choice that doomed us to live in a sinful world, yet God still made a way out, because he loves us. God says that where his spirit is, there is freedom, it’s his true desire for us.
Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.
2 Corinthians 3:17
Free Choice
God never wanted to be separated from us, but he placed the choice in the hands of his prized creation, human beings. He put the tree in the garden with a warning. There is no true love without true choice. Otherwise, we are mere slaves under total control. God’s heart’s desire was for us to be his children, and even to be friends with us. Unfortunately, the choice we humans made was the gravest and irreversible choice possible. Yet, while we were helplessly bound by sin and the effects of sin through the ages, God sent Jesus. It was his sacrifice that reopened the door to a relationship with God.
34 Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. 35 Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. 36 So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.
John 8:34-36
Free Help
Before Jesus left the earth, he told his disciples he had to go so that the “Comforter” could come, who would,” lead us into the truth”* The truth has the stunning ability to set us utterly free. In the light of truth, darkness simply disappears. God’s desire is for us to be free in him and not fall into the bondage of slavery and control of our enemy, and he sent help. The Holy Spirit is here to help us; we should take this help and allow his freedom to become family. Let’s take a moment and thank him for paying for and providing everything we need to become sons and daughters of God and walk in his freedom.
14 For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons[a] of God. 15 For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!”
Romans 8:14-15
Prayer
God, since that mistake in the garden, not one person can live without sinning, including me. My sins and shortcomings separate me from your holiness. Thank you for sending Jesus to cleanse me of my sins and your Holy Spirit to guide me into a personal relationship with you. You have not come to condemn or stop me from having fun but to save me from those embedded hooks of sin that I may serve you joyfully and freely. Thank you for your freedom to live, love, and enjoy the life you’ve given me. Amen.
