If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed. {John 8:36}
How beautiful are those words! If Christ sets us free we are surely free indeed! No one can appreciate these words more poignantly than those who know exactly what Christ has done for them to set them free. When you are bound in sin and darkness of the principalities of this world, and you struggled everyday to be set free and then one day, as if overnight, you can see the light of Christ and feel His love for you; now you understand the truth about being set free.
And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. {John 8:32}
The freedom that Christ has freely given to us, however did not come free. There was a cost. Though He freely gives it to whosoever will, this freedom was purchased by God’s own blood – His death at the cross. It is the greatest thing He has ever done in His life. It is the greatest thing He has ever done for us – to hang, bleed and die at the cross.
He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? {Romans 8:32}
To be completely free we have to give our all to Him. To experience Christ and His fullness we have to surrender our everything to Him. Christ gave His all for us. He requires our all as well from each and every one of us. It is a relationship that goes deep down into the very essence of who we are and satisfies the very longings of our soul. We are made in the likeness of Christ who is the physical body of the Father. When we give our all, we become the embodiment of the image of the Father who is in Christ Jesus. Without giving a hundred percent to Christ we will never know what it is like to be completely free.
Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. {Matthew 16:24}
So many of us suffer many kinds of maladies and insecurities. When handed over to Christ, all these become a tool He can use for His glory. There is no ailment or suffering or sin or uncleanness we cannot overcome when our all is handed to the One who can speak things into existence out of nothing and bring life to the dead. Every single little issue we have – whether big or small, it is nothing to the Lord. They are indeed little to Him. What He requires from us however, to be made free, is a complete surrendering of our love and affections to Him. Every little tug in our hearts to spend time with Him we must respond to. Every little impression, every little thought to talk to Him, we must submit to. This is where our power lies – in responding to His drawings and to the beckoning of His presence to go to Him and talk to Him. Without our heart saying, “I come Lord, wait for me,” we will miss out in a lot of things, especially in becoming completely free.
Wherefore (as the Holy Ghost saith, Today if ye will hear his voice, Harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness:
When your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my works forty years. Wherefore I was grieved with that generation, and said, They do alway err in their heart; and they have not known my ways.
So I sware in my wrath, They shall not enter into my rest.)”
Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God. But exhort one another daily, while it is called Today; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.
For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence stedfast unto the end.
{Hebrews 3:7-14}
Prayer
Father, I come to You today, asking for more of Your grace and compassion upon my soul. For You know my desire for You Jesus, but my flesh wars against me that I cannot do what You desire for me to do. Please Lord, have mercy upon my soul and help me to surrender my will to You, my thoughts and my desires to Your will, for Your name’s sake. I know that Your thoughts concerning me are good and that You have a wonderful and expected end for me. Please Savior, forgive me from all of my sins and my trespasses. Forgive me for hiding things from You and for the many times I have hardened my heart against Your desires of me to talk to You. Please Jesus, help me to come to You more and respond more to Your drawings of me to talk to You. Please Father I desire to give a hundred percent to You that You may set me free completely from all of these things that make me unhappy and hold me back from loving You. I want to be able to worship You Father, in spirit and in truth all the time. I pray in Your most wonderful name, Jesus. Thank You, Father. Amen.
