Are You Suffering in Your Freedom?

Prayer – Lord Jesus, You were the one suffering for all of us…for the whole world…to have freedom from sin and corruption. Ever since the fall of Adam and Eve, people have had to suffer—but You have given us the opportunity to be free from our sinful nature. Thank you. 

Yet what we suffer now is nothing compared to the glory he will reveal to us later. For all creation is waiting eagerly for that future day when God will reveal who his children really are. Against its will, all creation was subjected to God's curse. But with eager hope, the creation looks forward to the day when it will join God's children in glorious freedom from death and decay. For we know that all creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. And we believers also groan, even though we have the Holy Spirit within us as a foretaste of future glory, for we long for our bodies to be released from sin and suffering. We, too, wait with eager hope for the day when God will give us our full rights as his adopted children, including the new bodies he has promised us. We were given this hope when we were saved. (If we already have something, we don't need to hope for it. But if we look forward to something we don't yet have, we must wait patiently and confidently.) Romans 8:18-25 NLT

 

Meditate. Consider your freedom.

 

Set free. Free from death and decay. What a glorious freedom that will be. For now, today, we can focus on the freedom we have not only in Christ, spiritually, but also in our pursuit of life, liberty, and justice for all in the United States. This is the day we celebrate our “independence” from the tyranny of the oppression we experienced in 1776. Now, what compulsions, detrimental domination, coercion injustice draws us to seek freedom? Our country is struggling with inflation that will likely only get higher; a sense of insecurity as so many illegals flood across our borders; and unrest as people demonstrate their right to choose and respond to crises plaguing our nation and world.

 

People, like my cousin Bob Jeske, gave their lives in Viet Nam and other conflicts so that we could experience continued freedom here at home. His family suffered that loss. According to a PBS website, more than 1.1 million United State military personnel have died fighting in US wars. That is a lot of men and women who gave up their lives for our freedom.

 

Only one person, Jesus, gave up His life to rescue our spiritual life. He died on a cross taking on our sins so that we didn’t have to suffer a permanent death. He gave us spiritual freedom. That freedom is our when we choose to accept Jesus as our savior. The Truth will set us free. Jesus is the Truth, the Way, and the Life. Have you made the choice to allow Jesus to be your own savior…or are you suffering for the freedom that could be yours?

 

Verse of Salvation ~ So Jesus was saying to the Jews who had believed Him, "If you abide in My word [continually obeying My teachings and living in accordance with them, then] you are truly My disciples. And you will know the truth [regarding salvation], and the truth will set you free [from the penalty of sin]." John 8:31-32 AMP

© 2024 Text, photos, and illustrations by Mickey M. Hunacek. All rights reserved. 

All scripture quoted from the New Living Translation (NLT) unless otherwise noted. 

New Living Translation copyright © 1996, 2004, 2007 by Tyndale House Foundation. 

Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations taken from the Amplified® Bible (AMP),

Copyright ©2015 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. lockman.org

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