I'm Free!

It's a strange dichotomy that I can be free and a servant at the same time. As a young girl growing up in the church and then attending a christian school this is a truth that has been preached about, taught on, and actually debated through. However, lately I have come back to this truth over and over again in the past 2 1/2 years since returning from Turkey.

On my way to school the past couple of days I have asked myself what I am actually free from. Well, the right answer is that I am free from sin and death, right? Oh but it is so much more than that. The complete question does not stop with what I am free from, but what I am free to do.

I am memorizing part of Psalm 119. The perfect time for me to do this is on my way to school in the morning, so as I was reciting verse 32 over and over and over and over and over ten times it finally hit me. A light bulb went on in my blinded brain. The psalmist says in verse 32, "I will walk in your commands for you have sent my heart free." You ask what the switch was and I can only say the Holy Spirit. But ask me what the light was and I will reply with numerous illuminations.

We aren't just free from sin and death. The freedom that comes from sin and death is a freedom which now allows me to obey. My heart is free to serve the living God. My heart is free to love the Lord my God with all my heart, soul, and mind. My heart is free to love...not as the world loves...but as God loves. Freedom from sin and death frees me to show love and grace and mercy...to work towards being clothed with Christ. I have the freedom to read God's word and understand, to worship in truth and spirit, to understand that this world is fleeting yet I am safe in the shelter of His wings. I am free to be a child of the King. I am free from sin and death, and now free to serve my God in truth and joy.

Do I do these things to perfection? Absolutely not! However, I am now free to make the choice. If all of these things, and many more, I am free to do now that I am a child of God...how great is the hold that sin has on our lives? How blind is the individual who is still in slavery to sin? How deceived by the prince of darkness they are. But today I am rejoicing with the psalmist when he says, "I have chosen the way of truth, I have set my heart on your laws; I hold fast to your precepts, O Lord. Do not let me be put to shame. I will walk in your commands for you have set my heart free." I am free to serve and obey!