Someone who is in the will of God makes few choices, for his decisions are simply a continuation of the one he has already made.  It is those who stagger back and forth between God’s will and his own, that feel overwhelmed and stressed.  Those who have already chosen to dwell in God’s will come to a decision already with an answer and in fact often don’t even realize they’ve passed through a decision.  

It seems that the next ‘best’ thing to true freedom is the acceptance of the bondage that needs to be loosed.  It is the relief of the struggle and fight that actually imitates true freedom, yet in this relief no freedom is truly found.  When the bondage is accepted as normal, okay, or in fact good it assimilates into the very core of who you are causing you to not only to change how you see yourself but what you become.

True freedom is freedom from the bondage not its acceptance.  Giving up on the fight is to give up on yourself and who you are.  It is like a person who gives up on life itself to accept the inevitable therefore losing their life but getting the relief that makes them feel free.  Bondage need to be broken off and destroyed, not accepted. 

As easy as it is to accept the bondage and to get free of the fight for freedom the inevitable is this; bondage that has been accepted destroys the desire and ability to battle the oppression. 

Accepting who you are will cause you to remain the same or worse digress from you own self-deceit.  But acknowledging who you are and believing that you can change empowers you to move forward and became who the person God sees you as.  These are the truths that we must hang on to;

We are born into sin; we are therefore are evil in our nature and in need of a Savior.

 Jesus paid the price to redeem not only us but who we are; therefore there is no excuse not to change.

We all love the story of David.  It may be one of the first stories you hear about growing up in church.  But what most people don’t understand is that David didn’t just go and kill Goliath.  He had first spent many seasons alone with God worshiping him on the back side of a mountain.  And his courage?  He had killed a bear and a lion by his hands.  So before we step up to try and take out a giant, lets first spend some time on the back side of a mountain, and deal with the lion and the bear.  Because before god can trust you with the destiny of a nation, you had better know who He is and He had better have confidence that you can protect a bunch of smelly sheep.

…he who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Jesus Christ.  This continuing work is a process of conviction and repentance.  The Bible says we are righteous and holy, yet as we grow He reveals our fleshly nature through the Holy Spirit’s conviction. This leads us to repentance, and when His forgiveness comes we are once again holy and righteous. Now if I have been selfish and God reveals it to me years after I have been saved, was I really righteous and holy before I repented?  Yes, because God does not expect us to become a saint over night.  He only expects us to change the things He is convicting us about right now.   We really don’t know we are wrong if God doesn’t reveal it to us.  (He uses His Word, people, situations etc.. but that is a topic for another time)  The Bible says that the Law is for the Lawless.  Those of us who are saved have the lam written upon our hearts and minds as the Spirit of God reveals it to us.  Now are you righteous and Holy?  Or should I ask, have you been obedient to what God is asking you to change?

If we classify grace as simply forgiveness, simply the lack of consequences then grace changes nothing.  But grace is change.  Grace takes a man bound in sin, hopeless to be anything other than what he already has been, to being who God called him to be.  The process of grace starts with repentance, then confession and forgiveness.  But then the miracle happens.  It begins to change the core of a man into what God has called him to be.  It is the continuing work of grace that changes how a man sees himself.  And man is the sum of his self image.  (A righteous man only does works of righteousness.) Proverbs 23:7a says “For as he thinketh within himself, so is he…”

 In Joshua chapter 2 Joshua sends out two men to spy out Jericho.  Jericho’s king learns of this and tries to find them, but they have been hidden by a woman, Rahab.  She says this to the spies, “I know that GOD has given you the land. We’re all afraid. Everyone in the country feels hopeless.”  She goes on to say regarding the things they have heard, “We heard it and our hearts sank. We all had the wind knocked out of us. And all because of you, you and GOD, your God, God of the heavens above and God of the earth below.”  She was saying that the people feared God and His people.  Jericho had stone walls ten feet thick and gates that could be locked.  It was a fortress of a town.  And yet God and His people’s reputation was so great that everyone of them were afraid.  I think of this story and compare it to the church today.  Who is scared of us?  Who takes us seriously?  I want that for the church.  I want the world to fear God and His people.  To know we are different, and that God’s power is seen living through us.

What do we lose when we give up? - I remember the names of those who walked alongside me.  I remember their dreams, their commitments.  I remember seeing them worship, and then I remember when they gave up.  I remember the falling away, the brokenness, the hurt they caused themselves.  I remember.  And maybe it’s part of those memories that solidify my commitment, my resolve.  What do we lose when we give up? Everything.  Maybe that’s the beginning of what Paul describes in Heb. chapter 6.  That it is impossible (it refers to a weak meaning in a sense, to be improbable or unlikely)  to restore someone to repentance once they’ve fallen away.   To all those who have walked with me and do so no longer, I love you, I pray for you, there is hope.  God calls out ‘come home.  Come home.’

Have you ever tried to explain to someone how incredible it was to look out onto the vastness of the Grand Canyon, or feel the the floor of Ellis Island where millions of immigrants walked for the first time as free people? Can you tell what it’s like to fall in love and explain how your gut is wretched when that love is lost? Is it possible to describe the smile of a person who, being born blind, miraculously see for the first time? You have to experience it. It’s the same way with understanding God. You have to experience Him. To know His love, His forgiveness, His mercy.