Freedom in Christ
1 Peter 2:15-16 (NLT) It is God’s will that your honorable lives should silence those ignorant people who make foolish accusations against you. For you are free, yet you are God’s slaves, so don’t use your freedom as an excuse to do evil.
What do you use your freedom for? Are you allowing your freedom to push you to grow closer to God or do you use your freedom to slack off and do nothing? What about using your freedom to do evil? Are you living in the will of God? Is your life honorable before Him or are there things in your life that need removed?
We are no longer slaves to sin, we have the choice to partake of sin or omit sin in our lives. Sin is what separates us from our Creator. It does not have to rule over you! Just as obtaining a driver's license is not a license to kill, neither is grace a license to willfully sin then ask for forgiveness.
We see many Christians with a "sin now and ask for forgiveness later" mentality. This is not the gospel. God knows our heart, He knows our intentions. This is why He can be the ultimate judge. He is a loving Father who desires to spend time with his kids. He will never let us down but are we giving Him the opportunity to work?
Another common thing we see in the church is people want God to bless them when they are doing everything themselves and not really handing their life over to Him. They want to handle their finances without God receiving what's His, they want to handle their marriage without Jesus being at the center, they want to raise their children without a Godly upbringing or positive influences then come and question why God allowed all the bad to happen. We have a great responsibility to be good stewards over all God has given us; money, children, jobs etc. I ask again, what are you using your freedom for?
We have so much to be thankful for, allow your freedom to push you to pursue Christ in a deeper way. Allow your freedom to push you to share your story of salvation with someone you don't know. We are all called to preach the gospel and make disciples. It may look differently for all of us, but if every Christian would disciple at least 1 person each year, think of the difference it would make in our world today. Use your freedom to help set others free!
Isaiah 59:2 (AMP) But your wickedness has separated you from your God, and your sins have hidden His face from you so that He does not hear.
James 4:8 (NLT) Come close to God, and God will come close to you.
