"So if the Son of Man sets you free, you will be free indeed!"
- John 8:36 NIV
I love when the Bible uses exclamation marks! I think if there was one punctuation mark that I had to choose to represent life it would be the exclamation mark! I mean, why not? Life is incredible! Everything from the very beginning and the big picture of the universe to this very moment and how our bodies are functioning right now; our hearts beating and pumping blood, our lungs contracting and breathing air in and our, our sensories working allowing us to read this, our brains performing every single thing it is doing at this exact second!!
Yes, I am very well aware of all of the terrible things that happen in life. That's just part of it and it's been a part of life since the fall of man in the very beginning. But the Bible places and exclamation mark right here, emphasizing the importance of this statement. The word indeed actually means to emphasize a statement or confirm something already suggested.
Today, I want you to think about a few things. First, is there something in your life that you need freed from? For some of you this is an extremely vivid YES! For most of you your immediate response is no. Tune in right here, search your life, your thoughts, your actions, your circumstances, what has you bound? Maybe you're bound by a circumstance that is out of your control. Maybe it's a person who binds you.
There is a true story I want to share with you. A person who was entirely in love with the Lord became concerned for another person. These people are family, they know each other and what circumstances they are facing. Out of a godly love concern set in, overtime the concern became so strong that it was eventually put in a priority that only belongs to God. After a little while the relationship between the two became strained and full of bitterness and contention, but there was no escaping and just leaving. the two could not physically distance themselves. What happened was that the distress-maintain style of attribution set in, this is where everything that is negative that takes place is attributed to the other person. (i.e. "it's all their fault that...") Life became just shy of miserable and some days misery was achieved.
The person in this story was in bondage because (so they thought) of the other person. They were so godly in their intent to love this person, pray for them and try to help them. But the truth is the moment that this concern was elevated above it's correct priority level then things went south. The person ended up weighed down by their concern for another person and eventually enslaved themselves to that concern.
Proverbs 13:12 NIV "Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life."
Not all of you are going through that exact scenario, but you are bound by something. None of you wants to be a slave. Everyone longs for freedom. Over the course of history there have been many wars that have been fought in the name of freedom, it is still taking place today. Freedom is what you want.
Hebrews 11:1 KJV "Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen."
How do you get from hope deferred to sustaining hope?
Focus on God, not your bondage!
Mathew 6:33 NIV "Seek first the kingdom of God, and all these things will be given to you."
You may be thinking, but I do seek God first. The person in the story thought the same thing. Without even realizing it they had elevated something/someone else into their top priority and their top concern.That concern became an idol. God is very clear throughout scripture that there should be no other idols before him. The enemy is sneaky, he masquerades himself as light in order to fool us. He twists things and distorts them. You might have had a few of these thoughts; "I'm fighting for God!", "God put all of this together!". The whole time God's shaking his head.
1 Peter 5:8 NIV "Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour."
You have to stay alert and keep your mind sober! Sober is defined ass earnestly thoughtful; marked by temperance. You cannot fill your head with crap and expect to not be deceived. Let me interject this one thing right here, if it doesn't line up with God's word then it's WRONG! There's no way around that.
So, keep your focus on God. If you're looking at him you don't have time to see the tricks of the enemy. When you adjust your focus, He is able to remove your bondage.
The one thing the person from the story will tell you is that once your focus is on God and you run in that freedom, you stop worrying so much about things. Make sure that you catch that, you will still have circumstances arise. You will even still care about them, but you won't worry. You are free in knowing that God is taking care of everything and all you need to do is focus on Him and let Him guide you in every moment.
"So if the Son of Man sets you free, you are free indeed!"
"...let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and the perfector of faith."
- Hebrews 12:1 - 3 NIV
~Awaken Us to Motion~
Brenna Stanford
Scriptures to Study:
Mathew 6:33
Psalm 51:10
Proverbs 3:6
Romans 12:1- 3
John 8:36
Hebrews 12: 1-3
Hebrews 11:1
