Called to Freedom

You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather, serve one another in love. ~ Galatians 5:13

This is a difficult verse for me. Convicting in some respects, used by the devil to give me a general sense of guilt in other respects, and freeing as well. The conflict in my heart is rather difficult to sort out. Bottom line...Christ died for my sins. He was pierced for my transgressions. Because Christ, who knew no sin, on my behalf became sin, and was slaughtered, I have forgiveness of my debt to the Father. That is FREEDOM! And by God's good grace, my eyes have been opened and I have received that gift of eternal life. To me, it seems that the transformation should be complete. The bible says I am a NEW creation. The old is gone! My problem with this? Why do I continue in patterns of sin?

Galatians says "do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature". So I'm sitting here, evaluating in what ways I indulge my sinful nature. Part of me wants to say "I don't indulge it", "I'm fighting it". But the honest part of me knows that is not entirely true. I do indulge my sinful nature. Any honest Christian has to come to the point where he/she realizes that there is a freedom in the fact that sin has been forgiven past, present and future! Whatever sin I commit today, I know Christ already paid for it. But knowing that hurts me...

Why do I, knowing the price He paid, take for granted that I no longer owe the debt? I can easily see how college students can sluff off their studies when they are not the ones paying for the steep tuition or the room and board. Or the young adult that doesn't take much of life seriously because mom/dad always paid for their speeding tickets, their insurance and car payments, their rent and food money, and generally made sure they were never allowed to stand on their own and take the consequences of their own actions. (Twisted form of "protection" we parents sometimes uphold.) But how does a person avoid such an attitude? How do I stay grateful and humble toward the display of the cross?

If I can take anything else from this particular verse, a big part of staying humble and grateful is to serve one another in love. If you think about what it means to serve...to put others before ourselves...to give sacrificially of ourselves for the sake of others' needs. By doing so, I think we take steps toward holiness! We understand a teeny-tiny taste of what it means that Christ sacrificed for us. The more we sacrifice for others, the less we should be vulnerable to indulging our sinful nature.

This is hugely convicting to me. My husband and I have been working through cutbacks in finances. I feel that while slow, our debt reduction plan is working just fine. But more than anything I would love to be able to help others. Cell phones and cable and other "extras" we take for granted, I would think could be easily sacrificed in order to help others whose needs are hardly or not at all being met right now.

As "holy" as that may sound, I am really struggling with my follow through. We reduced our cell phone bill significantly, but haven't terminated the contract we have for cable service. I haven't done as well with our groceries as I could have because I haven't been planning as much. Thankfully we have been well-stocked for a while and haven't needed much, but still. I could save more. The problem comes back to laziness and selfishness. And this is just in the area of finances.

There is also my personal commitment to my marriage and my family. What kind of sacrifices am I making in that respect that would help me avoid indulging my sinful nature? Truth is...not many. One of my "besetting" sins is overeating. In times when I binge eat, I get tired and run down. Or I stay up so late that I'm tired and run down the next day from lack of sleep. Either way, one of the consequences of my sin is not having the energy to tend to and serve my family. Sin breeds more sin. The more I indulge my sinful nature, the more I will continue to indulge my sinful nature just because it takes way too much effort to turn around and go in a different direction. Isn't that how it is with so many other sins as well?

So why in the world would I publicize this on a blog?

James 5:16, "Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective." When we quote James 5:16, we often only quote the latter part of the verse...that the prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective. However, I wonder if we stop to think how we became "righteous"? I suspect we can, like many other things, take that transaction for granted...as we take for granted the resulting freedom! But when we confess (and this whole confession piece ties into what I've been working through all week with daily disciplines), we admit to the Lord how we've offended him and perhaps others as well. We ask for prayers to encourage repentance. Repentance is turning from our sin and walking uprightly instead. Healing comes when grace covers our sin. "By his wounds, we are healed!"

My second reason is for your benefit. If you are a Christian, then how seriously are you taking this verse in Galatians? What part of your sinful nature are you indulging? Are you justifying your behavior somehow? Are you failing to see how correcting that behavior, repentance, would allow you to live as truly called to freedom? How long will we stay shackles instead of living in freedom?

I'm not sure about you, but my prayer for today is that the Lord would give me a HUGE dose of grace as I confess and ask for healing. Lord give me the energy to serve others, give me the heart of unselfishness that I may be used to meet the needs of others, and Lord help me to live according to the call to Freedom!! I love you!