free

Opening Prayer: Lord Jesus, you offer me freedom.  Why, then, do I not claim that freedom and stand firm in that freedom more often?  Lord, have mercy on my soul.  Give me the strength and the power, Lord Jesus, to stand firm in your freedom.  Amen

Scripture: Galatians 5:1

Journal:  How do you let yourself become a slave instead of living in the freedom that Jesus offers?  How do you not let that happen?

Reflection: One little word.  I’ve probably read it a thousand times.  But for some reason this time I saw it.  Not that I didn’t lay my eyes on it before, but somehow, this time, I actually saw it.  “It is for freedom that Christ set us free.  Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.”  How could I have missed it for so long?  When my freedom is being jeopardized by my circumstances or my anxieties, or the thousand-and-one other things that can threaten my sense of freedom, it is not something that is out of my control like I tend to tell myself.  It is something I let happen to me.  Christ has given me freedom, I am the one who lets myself be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.  I let the anxieties dominate me.  I let my circumstances control me.  Jesus offers me the freedom to not let that happen.  I am not just a victim.  I am not helpless and defenseless.  I have the power to stand firm from those attacks in Jesus.  In him, and in the freedom he offers, I can say no to the yoke of slavery, whatever it may be.  Is it that easy?  No, not at all.  As a matter of fact it’s one of the hardest things we will ever do.  Is it that simple?  Yes, it certainly is!  Because it is for freedom that Christ has set me free.  Be free.

Prayer

Closing Prayer: Set me free, Lord Jesus, from all of my misguided ways of being and seeing.  Break the chains that bind me, and destroy my patterns of sin and darkness and death.  Set me free, Lord Jesus, for when you do, I will be free indeed.  Amen.