A thought on Freedom

I was talking to a friend the other day about spiritual bondage, and it got me thinking.

We are told that "If Christ has set you free, then you are free indeed." and yet very few Christians that I have met have not experiences some sort of spiritual bondage. The two don't seem to go together.

My thought is this - we are made free by Christ, but our bondage is really our inability to accapt that freedom. We are plagued by guilt, by feelings of inadequicy, by a sient hidden fear that God really doesn't love us and didn't forgive us.

I think of it this way. When we begin our lives we are chained to a wall far from God. The more "active" we are in our sinful lives the more chains bind us. When We accapt Christ, the chains are unlocked and we are free to move toward God.

Then, as we start moving forward, we are smetmes held back by those same chains. They arn't wrapped around us, bidning us anymore, but trailing behind us so that we are pretty much unaware until we reach their limit - like a dog who forgets they're tied in a yard.

Then there comes a choice - do we remove the chain that Christ has already unlocked, or, because that sounds just completely too simple, do we struggle against it, pulling and trying until it breaks.

Both methods may free us from the chain, but I think the struggle method ignores the freedom that Christhas given us.

For when we are set free, we are free indeed.

Now, I admit that there are some chains that we are unaware of, that we refuse to acknowledge or that we are stubborn and will not walk away from. Those ones are more difficult because each of those situations adds chains of their own.

As I have grown in Christ I have had to deal with my chains. One of the most difficult was my self injury and all the things associated with it. It took me a long time to be able to end that battle, and I couldn't understand why. Why would God forgive me and free me, and then leave me there to struggle.

I'm starting to understand now that the struggle was not me having to battle and break this bondage, but my needing to get over myself, my guilt and insecurities, and accapt the freedom that God has so graciously lavished on me. There were still struggles associated with it, still consequences that needed to be delt with, but that is made much easier when we have the assurance that the battle is over, that we are truly free.

There are so many people I know that live their lives in a struggle, in a constant never ending battle with their past, fighting to keep it away from who they are in Christ. That is not the life that God intends us to live.

If Christ has set you free, then you are free indeed.


we will walk in Your freedom, walk in Your liberty
We will dance in Your freedom, dance in Your liberty

I'm free
I'm free
I'm free
I'm free