What Does A Free Life Look Like

What in the world do I have to do actually to have the life that God has for me?  I am currently writing this article while overseeing my two oldest children and their 13 friends who came to hang out.  They are playing cards, will watch a movie in a little while and are just enjoying each other’s company.  It’s a room full of teenagers, and as I look at them, I know that they have their issues and many of them are here to get away from the pains of being at home.  Despite some of their situations, they continue to believe that things will change for them.  They are young, and know they will not be in their homes forever.   Eventually there will be a time to have families of their own one day.  

I wonder, when does the hope that there is more, end?  Is there a moment in which we stop expecting better for ourselves?  At what point does the year come and go and nothing has changed for us?   Many things can stem from the ruts we find ourselves in when our struggles and pains dominate our lives.  The habits, hang-ups and addictive nature we may have adopted can play a massive part in the cycles we have grown accustomed to.  I don’t care how long you have been saved, each of us has things in our life that have held us imprisoned.  Addiction, low self-esteem, bad habits, or tendencies; call it whatever you want.  Each of us have come to salvation with baggage.  What is interesting is that many can go years in salvation and never learn how to honestly find freedom or discover how to let go of the things that bind them.

What Are The Chains That Bind Us

My husband and I have witnessed so many who were surprised of the changes in their lives once past hurts, struggles and/or sins were dealt; with in a way that helped them to move forward in their salvation.  Chains that they didn’t even know existed were broken off and relief was felt from the weight of what once held them down.   That is true freedom, and it can spark a change in us but it does not come without effort from us.  

In all cases, freedom is always a choice, and spiritual freedom is no different.     There are some things that God won’t give us until we were ready to follow through on necessary changes.   We must choose to seek out what is needed in order to possess what God has for us.  His goal is always to give us a new hope and future.  To live in that promise though, we need to move by His leading.  

Take a look at your life and be honest.  Are there things that you can say you are in bondage to?  You may not have seen them as such before, but looking at them now, if you can say, “Yeah, this issue has hindered me.” to anything then the first question should be, what do I do to be set free?  

The first thing is to recognize that someone sets every trap you fall into.  In Luke 21, Jesus even tells us about it. 

34 “Be careful, or your hearts will be weighed down with carousing, drunkenness and the anxieties of life, and that day will close on you suddenly like a trap. 35 For it will come on all those who live on the face of the whole earth. 36 Be always on the watch, and pray that you may be able to escape all that is about to happen, and that you may be able to stand before the Son of Man.”

 What we need to recognize is that there are things set up, in this world, that are designed for no other reason but to keep us from what God has for us.  The traps that are the most effective are those with bait.  If you want to catch something in a trap, you make sure to lure them in with enticement, temptation, and fleshly desires.  When you want to catch a rabbit, you don’t lure it in with meat or fish; you put whatever that rabbit eats as bait so that it can be captured.  It’s the same for us.  You may have heard the saying, “This world has nothing to offer you.”  That isn’t true else there wouldn’t be a temptation.  Of course, the world has what we want!  God designed us to enjoy the beauty of His creation.  It is how we handle what is offered that is key.  

Living Free Is Hard

Have you heard about prisoners who enjoyed being locked up?  According to the National Institute of Justice, about 68% of 405,000 prisoners who were released were arrested again for a new crime within three years; 77% were arrested within five years.  Why would so many of them, after being set free, choose to continue a lifestyle that would place them back into prison?  These numbers indicate to me that many who are set free, are still prisoners in their hearts and minds.  They have never found a way to live a life of freedom.  Their body was no longer in bondage; however, their mind still was.   

“Prison becomes their home and for most, the only home they’ve ever had.  Yes, there are some who had comfortable beginnings…I slowly learned that the large majority of them for the first time in their lives, had three meals a day, showers, clean clothes, a bed, books, movies, classes of what they want to study, winter/summer sports equipment and, for most, the first time to ever receive any kind of medical care, including both dentistry and optometry.” Some of us are so comfortable in our prison that we don’t know how to live free.  – Zoe Erler:  “When Prison Becomes Too Comfortable” from the Salt Lake Tribune.

Maybe you’re the person battling with severe depression, and when things get rough, you cut or mutilate yourself. Perhaps you are the one who turns to alcohol–or some substance when things get stressful to help escape from feeling like garbage.  Are you one who uses sex for an escape from feeling hopeless or as a way to feel valued?  Do you use your friendships as a source of approval and acceptance?  It may not even be that deep.  Maybe your addiction is spending, throwing yourself into work, the desire to be a success, or need to find approval.  You could also be addicted to control.  Yes, sometimes the feeling of not having control causes some to have a sense of anxiety, and they feel vulnerable and weak if others don’t see things their way.

Whether in the ways I mentioned above or in the hundreds of other forms that exist, can we ever really live a free life to the fullest as God has laid out for us while held captive by these bondages?  Life will have its frustrations, and unchecked habits and responses will lure us from trusting in God if we aren’t careful.  Even the most harmless solutions, if it is not of Him, it is a trap.

What does it look like to be chained to a habit?  One of the struggles that I had at a young age was sexual addiction.  I was exposed to pornography at a very young age, and it became the thing that I turned to when I was in pain and felt hurt.  Pornography was what I used to escape the world I was living in.  It was always there for me and not in the best way.  My addiction was never far from me no matter how much I ran from it.  It stayed close and called out to me when no one was answering my calls for help.   Sadly, every time I entertained my addiction, I convinced myself that everything would be better, but when the intoxication of it was all over, I felt disgusted, guilty and lower than when I first started. I knew this was bondage because no matter how many times I turned to it for help–hoping it would make me feel better–the results were opposite.   Regardless, I still turned to it whenever I was hurting.  I realized that the pains I felt only caused me to switch to my addiction for comfort that was only temporary and that did nothing to help me with my original problem.  

Only God Can Do It

When I gave my heart to the Lord, it took two years to break the stronghold.  I had to learn a few things, and I want to share them with you,

“The Spirit of the Lord is on me (Jesus),

because he has anointed me

to proclaim good news to the poor.

He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners

and recovery of sight for the blind,

to set the oppressed free,”

-Luke 4:18.

As humbling as this may sound, only Jesus has the ability to set you free—you cannot do it on your own—no matter how small you think the stronghold is.  Over two thousand years ago, Jesus died on a cross for every single bondage that could ever ensnare us.  He allowed Himself to endure the same imprisonment we face when we feel trapped, but there is one difference; He has obtained the keys that unlock every spiritual, emotional and mental prison we may be in, and He brings with Him hope.

How do we get this access to these keys?  Well, when we go to God and ask Jesus Christ to live in our hearts and lives, we are not only given a new heart, new hope and new future…we are also given the keys to help set us free from every trap we may fall into.  So why do we still feel trapped at times?  It’s simple, He has provided the keys, but it is up to us to learn how to use them.  Each “lock” that binds us is different.  They require work and effort on our part in order to turn the key the right way.  

Even still some have received the key, they have unlocked the door, but they never walked out of the cage.  There are those who do not find freedom not because they don’t know how, but only because they are too scared to let go of their prison.  It’s all they know and where they feel safe, much like those prisoners Mr. Erler described.  It is up to us to decide how badly we want to be free.  It is on us to seek after the Lord and His ways, to learn how to trust our lives, past – present and future, into His hands.  And it is also on us to walk through the doors of the prisons we are in and find true freedom.  

Weekly Challenge:

I don’t know where you are mentally and emotionally but maybe there is something that is something that is keeping you bound. The New Year is right around the corner.  What do you need to do in order to have a better tomorrow?  You don’t have to do it alone.  Contact us at thruthewinters@gmail.com.  We would love to give you additional resources.  Follow us on instagram@throughthewinters.com.   Also Merry Christmas to you and your loved ones.