Wednesday’s Devotion: Sometimes Freedom Leads to Slavery

Jeremiah 34:17  Therefore, the Lord proclaims: Since you have defied me by not setting your fellow citizens free, I’m setting you free, declares the Lord, free to die by the sword, disease, and famine!

Galatians 5:13  [ Life by the Spirit ] You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh ; rather, serve one another humbly in love.

2 Peter 2:19  They promise them freedom, while they themselves are slaves of depravity—for “people are slaves to whatever has mastered them.”

In a time of sharing with some friends recently the subject of people wanting to be free (especially children) of the rules of authority came up.  I’ve observed that children go through several stages of breaking free.  When they are a toddler they start recognizing that they are a separate being from their parents and they begin to learn to say the word “no.”  As teens or pre-teens sometimes they begin to push the envelope to see how much autonomy they can have.  But freedom and responsibility go hand in hand. All of these scriptures address this in some way. Our conversation also turned to free will – the freedom God gives us to act as we will and how much of the bad things that happen come  from people abusing that freedom.  If God controlled the world like a huge cosmic puppet show there might not be any people being killed by drunk drivers, but we would not be a free people either.  I want God to take control of my life and help me live up to his standards, but I’m glad that I am free to ask for that or not.  Like Jesus we can say to God, “Not my will, but yours be done” or we can open ourselves up to becoming slaves of our desires and bad habits.  It’s our choice. As Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 10:23,
 [ The Believer’s Freedom ] “’I have the right to do anything,’ you say—but not everything is beneficial. ‘I have the right to do anything’—but not everything is constructive.”  As I write this the Newsboys song “I Am Free” is running through my mind.  Here’s a link:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nR7bBEBIC9g

Gracious God, you created us with the freedom to love or hate, follow you or reject you, ignore others or help them, live or die. Help us to use that freedom wisely. Amen.