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Give Me Liberty! Liberty a state of being free within society from oppressive restrictions imposed. I would say most of us are quite familiar with this definition after this past year and some would say that the liberties once experienced in America have changed over the past 12 months. I have never experienced a time like this. At a time, which many liberties we have are in question, I find peace in knowing the liberty God provides. He is the ultimate authority.
The other day I was reading the book of Psalms. Verse 45 is as follows; And I will walk at liberty, For I seek Your precepts. Psalm 119 talks a lot about following God’s precepts, commandments, ordinances. David often refers to follow these commands through the use of terms like “I have hoped for” “I delight myself” “that which I love”. I often think of these precepts, commandments and ordinances as guidelines, guardrails, and rules which God has given each of us for our own benefit.
I remember before coming to Christ, I thought there was NO freedom or liberty in Christ. It seemed like a boring set of rules which one must follow closely in life to be saved. Now that I know the Lord and have walked with him over the years, I understand the liberty which King David loved, delighted himself in and hoped for all the days of his life.
The Bible refers often to liberty. A small disclaimer here; this liberty God provides is not to go out in life and do whatever you want because God will forgive me (and He will with a repentant heart).
2 Corinth 3:17 Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.
James 1:25 But one who looks intently at the perfect law, the law of liberty, and abides by it, not having become forgetful hearer but an effectual doer, this man will be blessed in what he does.
Isaiah 61:1 The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, Because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the afflicted; He has sent to bind up the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to captives and freedom to prisoners
Here we find ourselves in a similar situation as great Kings, Prophets, and Apostles that went before us. It is not enough just to know the liberty which God provides to each of us, though this is essential for our personal salvation but now is the time for us to do more! It is the time which our reasonable service will not be enough!! The liberties of the world are aggressively competing with the those of us who call ourselves Christians.
We MUST go out into the world and proclaim the liberty Christ promises to the world through the Good News of Jesus Christ. That is that God sent his Son Jesus Christ to earth to die for each one of us. Sinful man could NOT be in relationship with a Holy God and so Jesus came as the mediator between us. The first step in the good news is recognizing we are all sinners and have fallen short of the Glory of God. We accept Jesus Christ as the way to having relationship with God. We repent, which means to turn away, from our sinful ways and seek God and His ways. My friend, there is so much liberty in this!!!
One thing is sure in this world for all of us, we do not know what tomorrow will bring. None of us knew what 2020 would bring to this world. This liberty is a choice we all make. Will you choose today the liberty of the world or that of Christ?
