1 Corinthians 9:27
“No, I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.”
Freedom. Something we all like to talk about. We like freedom, we love it, we walk in a lot of it. We talk about living in freedom. We talk about how, where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. We talk about the chains that have been broken through the bloodshed of our Savior, Jesus Christ. We view freedom as the ability to say yes to everything and be okay with it; that because we have been set free, boundaries, or a rule/structure of life doesn’t need to be in place. But, if freedom is viewed in the wrong way, we can become complacent and lose sight of our role in spiritual growth for ourselves, as well as serving others.
Something that has been on my heart is thinking about how I can grow in two different areas of my life. First, in living a life of celebration. Second, in finding God’s will and purpose for everything throughout the day. In order for me to start living a life of celebration, I realized that personally I needed to sit down and go through the celebrations and give thanks to the Lord. I needed to set aside time, I actually needed to structure this rule of life out so that I could live in it. Also, if I was to find God’s purpose in all the little things, I needed to stay more focused on Him, and so I set a rule that as I go through every different time of the day I would pray out loud. This helped me put my focus where it needed to be for what I wanted growth in, but I had to make sure I set aside a time, I had to set a boundary and say ‘this is what I need to do.’
In striving towards anything, a structure must be put in place in order for growth or progress to happen. If you train for running, you must have a structure put in place, and you will have to make sacrifices towards that. You will actually have to give some freedoms up, such as sleeping an extra hour or eating food that may make your taste buds happy. But if you are committed to it, you will be willing to take those extra steps.
When we were set free, when we were called into freedom, Christ paid the price for our sins. Jesus Christ took the form of a servant and became obedient to the point of death (Phi 2:7-8). He gave up everything, and for the freedom of us. He said no to the temptations from the enemy. I hope that we take up that same obedience and courage to fight for ourselves and for others. I hope we take the courage to say ‘No’ and give up some freedoms so that we may find more of what freedom is in God’s eyes. I hope we set goals for ourselves, and take the necessary sacrifices in order to know our Savior more.
Titus 2:11-12
“For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. It teaches us to say ‘No’ to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age.”
