Fear of Freedom

Living Truth

But I just don't feel very free.

In the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus didn't feel free either.  However, His faith was in His Father, not in His feelings.  And His feelings are a testimony of His deep love for you!   Being in agony, Jesus prayed earnestly.  His sweat became like great drops of blood (Luke 22:44).

I don't want to been seen as a religious fanatic.

Jesus wasn't religious.  He was (and is) real.  It's interesting that the word religion comes from the Latin root word that means "to bind."  Be careful not to become in bondage in trying not to be religious!  You are free to be genuinely you!   False brethren came to spy out our liberty in Christ Jesus in order that they might bring us into bondage (Galatians 2:4).

I know I'm free, but I also know that I have an important responsibility to do my part.

Did you know that you and I had no part in the New Covenant?  The New Covenant is between the Father and the Son.  We failed our part in the Old Covenant.  However, we have been given ALL the inheritance of the New Covenant!  Yes, we have a responsibility…to live out of our inheritance, not our own resources.  This is our response to God's ability, not our own abilities.   In Christ we have obtained an inheritance… …sealed by the Holy Spirit who is the guarantee of our inheritance.  I pray that you may know what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints…according to the working of God's mighty power in Christ (Ephesians 1:11, 14, 16-20).

You must be careful to balance law and grace; otherwise, you'll end up in an extreme ditch.

It's impossible to balance law and grace.  A smidgen of law nullifies the whole glory of grace.   The Law cannot annul the (new) covenant that was confirmed by God in Christ, that it should make the promise (the Spirit of Christ by faith) of no effect (Galatians 3:14, 17).

Too much freedom (grace) encourages passivity.

There may be times you may appear passive.  However, rest assured that our majestic Christ is living and active in you!  Grace can change the world through you!  By the grace of God I am what I am…I labored…but not I, but the grace of God with me (1 Corinthians 15:10).

Too much freedom (grace) encourages freedom to sin.

Freedom to sin actually is not good news.  The great good news of the gospel is that we have been freed from sin through our identification with the death and resurrection of Christ!   For he who has died (with Christ) has been freed from sin (Romans 6:7).

Grace takes sin too lightly.  It just doesn't deal with sin enough.

Grace alone takes sin to be as serious as it really is.  Grace alone depends solely on the death of our dear Jesus to deal with sin.  Grace says there is no-thing we can do to add to this work of our Savior.   I do not set aside the grace of God; for if righteousness (getting right with God) comes through the law (my efforts), then Christ died in vain (Galatians 2:21).

God has put me on a shelf because I have fallen from grace.

You can never fall from God's favor of you!  What happened is that you fell into self-righteousness.  Feel the embrace of God's everlasting arms around you.  Entrust your failures to God for Him to redeem for His glory.  Stand tall as a trophy of God's grace through the cross!   You therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus (2 Timothy 2:1). 

Repentance is the key to my on-going walk of faith.

Jesus is the key to your walk of faith.  Repentance is a fruit of your walk, not the cause.  Repentance means to "re-think (re-pent)" how righteousness is by grace and not by works.  It is God's gift of renewing our minds.   In humility, correct those who are in opposition, if God perhaps will grant them repentance, so they may know the truth (about righteousness) (2 Timothy 2:24-25).  

I'm so ashamed of my past and all my scars.

Jesus took all of your shame to the cross.  And God placed you in Christ; and because Christ is eternal life, you not only have a new present and a new future, you have a new past!  Don't be ashamed of your scars, for they tell a resurrection story!   You are free to tell others.  Jesus said, "Thomas, look at the scars on my hands.  Thomas, I am not ashamed of these scars for you…for they tell a resurrection story.  Tell My story through your scars.  (my paraphrase of John 20:29)

 

Fear of Freedom

Living Truth

I need to be all confessed up to maintain my fellowship with God.

Confess does not mean "to ask forgiveness," it means "to agree with God."  Indeed, confession is good.  You can agree with God when you sin.  You can agree with God that sin is not your nature.  Confess that through the cross God gave you the nature of Christ.  Confess that because of the cross you know that God will never break fellowship with you.   For I am persuaded that nothing shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 8:39).

I can't wait to get to heaven so that I can finally be free of pain.

Could I walk along with you in your pain?  I would like that.  I believe God is uniquely molding you into a pulpit to proclaim hope and freedom to others.   We who live are always delivered to death for Jesus' sake, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh (2 Corinthians 4:11).

Sure, I am free from the condemnation of the Law, but I am not free from the Law itself.

The work of the Law is complete.  It was fulfilled in Christ when the penalty of the Law was fulfilled.  There is nothing else for you to fulfill.  There is everything for you to freely proclaim!  The miracle of agape love from your heart is evidence of Christ's fulfillment of the Law.  Through love you prove to the world Christ…the One who indwells you!   He who loves another has fulfilled the Law.  Put on the Lord Jesus Christ (Romans 13:8, 14).

But I don't want to be against God's Holy Law.

I know you love God's Law, for it is the character of God that drove you to Christ.  You don't have to fear being anti-Law.  The highest reverence for His Law is grace…an acknowledgement that Christ alone has given you the righteousness the Law demands.   We know that the Law is good, if one uses it lawfully, knowing that the Law is not made for the righteous person, but for sinners (1Timothy 1:8, 9).

I'm just a sinner saved by grace.

God never calls you a sinner…you are His precious child.  You have been set apart (sanctified) in Christ by grace, not by your good works.   To the church of God which is at Corinth, to those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called saints (1 Corinthians 1:2).

I am a beggar simply telling other beggars how to find bread.

You are one with the King of Kings and Lord of Lords!  You have both the means and the authority to feed the whole world with the Bread of Life!   You are already full!  You are already rich!  You have reigned as kings!  (1 Corinthians 4:8).

You must be careful in telling people to live from their hearts, for deep down our hearts are sinful.

God does say in Jeremiah 17:9 the heart is deceitful and wicked.  Please hear the rest of His story!  God promises in Jeremiah 31:33 to forgive our sins and to write His holy Law on our hearts.  This was fulfilled for us through the cross, where Christ's blood was shed for our sins and we were crucified with Him to be given a new heart!   I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you.  I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes (Ezekiel 36:26-27).

Christians aren't perfect, we're only forgiven.

If this is true, Christians cannot go to heaven.  We indeed are not perfect in our behaviors, but we are complete in Christ.  If you don't believe this, you will never experience freedom because you will always be striving to be more complete.  Don't be afraid to believe what God says about you even as it challenges your old ways of thinking.   For in Christ dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, and you are complete in Him (Colossians 2:9-10).

Grace dangerously implies sinless perfection.

Grace is all about the perfect obedience of Christ, not our imperfect behavior.  As long as we are in unredeemed bodies, we are subject to sin.  However, there is nothing wrong with your new heart, for at the heart of who you are…is Christ Himself!  Liive in the consciousness of His life!   Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me (Philippians 3:12).

Someone told me that I will always be guilty for using the Lord's name in profanity.

Deuteronomy 5:11 does say that "The LORD will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain."  However, Jesus died for all of your failures to live up to God's holy Law.  You are free!  Hear your Father's heart for you!   For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out "Daddy, Father"(Romans 8:15).

 

Fear of Freedom

Living Truth

I must have more faith to live the abundant life in Christ.

It is not the size of your faith that is important, it is the object of your faith.  Seeking more faith is actually "faith in faith."  However, Jesus is the true object of your faith, and He says He has already given you His abundant life!   We were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, we shall be saved by His life (Romans 5:10).

I need to be more committed.

I hear your sincere heart here.  However, our greatest need is to trust God's total commitment to us!  Then, our commitment to God will gratefully overflow our hearts.    God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us (Romans 5:8).

I must work for God more like Jesus did.

Jesus never worked for God the Father.  His passion to be about His Father's business was not an obligation, but an overflow from His heart for you.  He chose to live as a Man totally dependent on the Holy Spirit.  And He has passed on that heritage to you.   Jesus said, "The Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He sees the Father do.  I can of Myself do nothing…but the will of the Father who sent Me.  I do nothing of Myself, but as the Father taught Me.  The Father who dwells in Me does the works."  (John 5:19, 30, 8:28, 14:9)

I guess I need to read my Bible and pray more to live a victorious life.

You don't have to do anything to have victory.  Christ has already done it all for you and has given all to you!  You now live from victory, not for victory!  Bible study and prayer can now be the well-springs of your already victorious life.   Let us lay aside every weight, and run with endurance the race set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith (Hebrews 12:1-2).

I am praying for God to bless me.

I know your circumstances do not appear to be blessings.  I want to be your friend to relate to you how you are already so blessed!   Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing (Ephesians 1:3).

I've been told that I need to get out of debt before I can effectively minister to others.

Financial debt is tough, but it cannot steal your freedom.  Instead of a liability, entrust your debt to God as an asset, as an opportunity for Christ to be manifested through your life as He leads you out of debt.  Christ is your ministry, not your finances.   I have learned both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need.  I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.  (Philippians 4:12-13)

I need to have generational curses in my life broken.

We can indeed reap consequences from choices of our ancestors.  However, Christ became a curse for you, and for you the curse is broken.  Now you have the power to break tendencies toward ungodliness by appropriating Christ's death and resurrection.  You are not locked in to a lifestyle just because your ancestors sinned.  You are truly free in Christ!   Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the Law, having become a curse for us…that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith (Galatians 3:13-14).

I have a problem with an on-going struggle with sin.

What a wonderful step of faith to share this openly.  I, too, have struggles.  Sin does appear to be the root issue, doesn't it?  However, the root issue is our need to believe that we've already been set free from sin.   Reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 6:11).

I was born with weird tendencies.  That's just who I am.

You are not a product of your past nor your birth…you are a product of the cross.  It would be a privilege for me to walk along side you to relate these truths to you.   If any man is in Christ, he is a new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17).

I still struggle with my old evil nature along with my new nature.

Your old nature was crucified with Christ…you are free from that old nature.  You have one nature that is one with Christ!  You are truly free!   Knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Christ that the body of sin might be rendered powerless (Romans 6:6).