Freedom

The analogy was a one that I could certainly relate to for I am a road warrior. I love driving and love car trips etc. so yesterday when my pastor, John Crimmins preached a sermon with  Galatians 5:7-12 as a baseline, he certainly got my attention.  His title was “Rules for the Freedom Road”. But there was one comment that continues to linger even now, a couple of days later.  Who or what is trying to push you off the road? That road of freedom that God has paved.  He used the word constraint several times and referenced it as something that is holding you back, something that is getting in the way of forward progress.

An example was given of a track runner on the inside lane, in a good position for a race, and how the opposition in the next lane, a good and experienced runner, has an innate ability to squeeze in close to his space just enough to try to get the runner off of his rhythm. I know that feeling; the feeling when I am trucking along just fine and someone or something gets a little too close to my comfort zone and my rhythm is interrupted. A constraint and distraction has successfully gotten me off of God’s course and has pulled me back into my own setting. 

God has placed us on a path of life, and sure as the world turns there are and will be constraints whether they be internal or external that are vying for an opportunity to interrupt God's rhythm in our lives. We have to consider the source of those constraints, and remember that God is the author of love and peace not chaos. If something has got you in a twit and you have found yourself entangled in bitterness, anger,  envy, the need for control, it is not God that is persuading your mind and heart, it is the enemy. Now I don’t like to talk too much about him and his ditch dwellers, but the fact of the matter is there is competition everyday for our attentions. 

The road of freedom lies in faith and trust in God no matter what constraints are trying to push you off the road. It could be unhealthy habits that you have tried to break and they keep creeping up into your running lane, causing you to be distracted. Whatever it is that is distracting you from trusting and being confident in the freedom road of God needs to be resolved. I need to identify those distractions and resolve it in myself.  This list of distractions can go on and on, but to list a few of my familiar ones: forgiveness, self pity, pride, need for control, obedience, judgement,  and one of my biggest is my time management and how I need to evaluate God’s priorities over my own. I surely cannot conquer any of these weaknesses on my own, for I am merely an instrument of God’s own choosing.  But one thing I know: as long as I am keeping my eyes on Him and trusting him to guide me on the road he has placed me on, I will not be alone. I will be strengthened in my weakness, assured through my faith, and blessed by His grace.     

The road to freedom is not easy, and we are guaranteed that there will be constraints that try to ease their way into our lane and get us off course, but the reality is: God is bigger than every one of our distractions.  With God's help and our continued focus on His truth and His ways, we are assured a ride that that will strengthen us, build us, transform us and better us for the purposes that He has planned for His glory and our best. His road is the road of freedom; freedom from death and freedom for the grips of sin.

Galatians 5 Freedom in Christ

5 It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.

² Mark my words! I, Paul, tell you that if you let yourselves be circumcised, Christ will be of no value to you at all. ³ Again I declare to every man who lets himself be circumcised that he is obligated to obey the whole law.⁴ You who are trying to be justified by the law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace. ⁵ For through the Spirit we eagerly await by faith the righteousness for which we hope. ⁶ For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.

⁷ You were running a good race. Who cut in on you to keep you from obeying the truth? ⁸ That kind of persuasion does not come from the one who calls you. ⁹ “A little yeast works through the whole batch of dough.” ¹⁰ I am confident in the Lord that you will take no other view. The one who is throwing you into confusion, whoever that may be, will have to pay the penalty. ¹¹ Brothers and sisters, if I am still preaching circumcision, why am I still being persecuted? In that case the offense of the cross has been abolished. ¹² As for those agitators, I wish they would go the whole way and emasculate themselves!  

Dear Lord, May your ultimate power be manifested in the hearts of your children and may yearn to seek your face and focus on your ways of truth.  Amen

 

Praise God wherever you are and whatever situation He has allowed you to be in . . . His glory will shine through!