Freedom to Be

Freedom is an amazing thing, but it also is one of those things that you really don't truly appreciate until it is taken away, or you lose it. Because for most of us, freedom is the way we have always lived. We live in a free country, free to believe and do pretty much whatever our heart desires. This is both good and bad. Most people believe that freedom is just that: freedom to do what they want. Unfortunately, and it is why we have laws, some people only care about their own freedom and not how the exercise of theirs can affect someone else's.

I want to suggest that true freedom occurs when we operate inside of how God designed us to be. We are all made by a perfect God, who designed us for Himself, and gave each of us gifts and talents to use for Him and His causes. A mentor of mine told me an illustration of freedom that he heard, and I want to share it with you as it paints a truly clear picture of what freedom looks like.

I said earlier that we are most free when we operate inside our God-given design. For example: birds are most free when they are flying. Submerge a bird in water and we soon realize it has lost its freedom. The same is true with a fish: toss it on land, and it loses the freedom it once had swimming in the water as it was made to do. So one could say that the bird and the fish are most free when they do what they were made to do, right? Another way of saying this is that the bird and the fish are most free when they are obedient to their designer's plan. How does this work for us?

We too are created by a designer, if you will, and He has a plan and purpose for His design. Look at this verse:

"For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them." Eph. 2:16

That word "workmanship" is the Greek word that literally translates as masterpiece: the same description could be given of an artist's finished work. So in essence, we are God's masterpieces, created to do good things that God has already prepared for us, that we should walk in them. Did you see how this verse ended? Paul is saying that we should walk in them: walk in the ways God has prepared in advance for us. Another way of saying "walk in them" is to be obedient to. Paul is saying we are at our best when we operate the way that we were designed to.

Do you see that? Hear what Paul is saying, that when we are obedient to our designer's plan, we then are the most free to be who God made us to be. Just as anything God has created, when it finds its created purpose, it finds its greatest freedom. Problem with us is that we think we know better. Obedience holds us back and puts rules on us to "behave," and is not fun at all. Obedience is not doing what you want and asking God to bless it, it simply is doing what God wants. You want to experience freedom beyond measure, then try being obedient beyond feelings.

In His grip,

Pastor Pat