Devotions

FREE TO MAKE MY OWN DECISIONS

I can still remember my dad’s response to my whining about everything he was having me do one day.  I felt like my brothers were getting off easy and he was throwing all the hard stuff on me and I said dad – even the Israelite slaves at some point were set free.  And he must have already rehearsed his response because it just rolled out of his mouth…..He said firmly and clearly

• “Son you are free – you are free to do everything that I have told you and want you to do. Enjoy your freedom.”

Americans did not invent the idea of freedom.  Even though we have fought wars for it and built monuments to it.  It is not original with us.  It began with God, way back in the beginning when he made Adam and Eve. 

• He made us with a mind……that we might THINK freel
• He made us with a heart……that we might LOVE freely
• He made us with a will…….that we might OBEY freely

By creating us in His image God gave us capacities not given to any other form of life.   He made us to know Him, to love Him, and to obey Him.  He didn’t put rings in our noses so he could pull us around.  He didn’t attach strings to our hands and feet to control and manipulate our every move.  He could have but He didn’t.  Instead he gave us freedom to make choices.  By His grace we are equipped to understand His plan, because we have a mind with which we can know him.  We are free to love and adore Him because we have emotions.  We can choose to obey his Word

Now there is a downside to all of this  - because we are free to know God and to love and obey him – we are also free to not do these things.  We are free to make wrong choices and then suffer the consequences of those choices.  And those consequences can then hold us in bondage and make it feel like we are in prison and do not really experience freedom.  So I guess my dad in hind sight was right  We are free to do whatever we want – but we’d be smart to realize we are free to do everything that God has told us and wants us to do.  That’s real freedom.