Are You Truly Free?

For me, this week has been a week of reflecting because God's been dealing with my heart on understanding and embracing a deeper level of obedience and surrender to Him. In other words, He's stretching me and growing me up more spiritually, and I know I'm not the only one feeling this pull from the Lord.

One scripture that's becoming even more clear to me is 2 Corinthians 3:18, "But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord." That part "with open face" depicts the level of vulnerability we're to have with the Lord. He wants our hearts to be completely open to Him to share even our deepest thoughts and fears with Him. Let's face it. We can go through life thinking that we're all the way surrendered and open to God. We can think we've given Him all of our heart, but in actuality, some things can just be too painful to even allow ourselves to think much about; therefore, we don't properly put the issues before Him. This fear of facing the issues and what it may reveal, even about ourselves, is a real fear. Addressing them with God, who is the one that truly sees, can be a scary thing to do because then we have to allow Him to work the hurt out of us and that can be a painful process. But it's a freeing process as well.

Healing brings about freedom and a better understanding of God's truth. "If the Son therefore shall make you free, you shall be free indeed (John 8:36)." When we allow God the room to heal our hearts by trusting Him completely with it, we make room for freedom. With this freedom comes the ability to walk in forgiveness, which is a hard place for many to overcome. The enemy uses our own unforgiveness as a weapon against us by continuing to confirm our hurts and validate our feelings in it. After all, we are right to feel the way we feel, right? It feels right so it must be right. Yes, we may be right and the injustice done to us may have very well been undeserved, but that in itself still does not escape us from the responsibility of forgiveness.

This is something that I have to remind myself of: My identity is not in what happened to me; my identity is in Jesus. As we read and study the Word, we understand who and whose we are more and more. Our very real weapon is the truth of God's Word. We have to use it against the schemes and tactics of the devil who wants to keep us bound in your souls. We are free in Christ, but we have to utilize what He's already put in our hands to walk it out because the devil is much too happy to help us stay bound.

PRAYER FOR TODAY:

Lord, thank you for freedom! Thank you that you are patient with us and you don't treat us or look at us the way mankind does. Forgive us for comparing how you may react to us or treat us to ways we've been treated by humankind. You are not a man that you should lie neither the son of man that you should repent (Numbers 23:19). Since you don't lie, I can believe what you tell me in your Word. I can believe that you will be there for me as I pour my heart out to you completely. Thank you for taking me through the process gently and in love. You know what I'm ready for and when. I trust you with me and I will walk in the freedom you have called me too. In Jesus' name. Amen.