Christ has set me free?

Christ has set me free...

or so Galatians 5:1 says...

The question is ...am i really living free?

if Christ has set me free, why do I feel so not free?

I wake up. my feet hit the ground and my mind plays through the list of things I've got to do ((or at least should attempt to do)). I've got to pay this bill. I've got to wash this load of laundry. I've got to be at work by this time. I've got to...got to...got to. The way I approach these "got to's" is with the motive that if I do not get these done, someone will be disappointed in me. Someone will certainly not be proud of me if I don't complete my list of expectations...

"It is for FREEDOM that CHRIST has set us FREE..."

there has to be a point in your walk with Jesus where you are not relying on people's approval of you anymore. working to gain approval by man doesn't free you, it chains you up. It leaves you feeling beat down when your life is not met to their standards. you have to get to a point with Jesus where HE is the one you're looking at, a point where you hand him your "got to's", pick up your chains of approval and hand them over to him....a point where you actually ALLOW HIM to set you free. 

what does that verse really mean, anyway? It is for freedom that Christ has set us free....He has set us free from sin...from it's weight and it's shame...from it's guilt...when you just read that, did your mind immediately go to some type of sin that seems like it would bring guilt... maybe going in the heck no zone with your boyfriend or hey, for you married ladies, with another co-worker? maybe your mind went to watching that show last night that was all about some visible sin? 

I wanna get to the sin that no one talks about...that everyone overlooks. that leaves you misunderstood and confused as to why your feeling shameful, feeling separated from Jesus, feeling everything but innocent...you haven't sinned, you haven't done anything just absolutely horrid...so why do you feel the way you do? 

maybe you're sin is that you're relying on yourself every day in your walk and not Jesus.

wait..what??? Ashleigh, what you talkin' bout guhhh? 

I rely on Jesus..I talk to him in the morning before I drop the kids off, before I close my locker and head to class, before I park the car and walk into my cubicle at work..He knows I need him...He knows i'm crazy busy with just trying to do life and so I know He gets it that I haven't picked up my bible in a while..all that stuff doesn't mean I've stopped relying on him...

or does it?

the very fact that you admit that you do or don't pray enough, that you do or don't read your bible enough, that you do or don't give to the poor enough, tithe enough, go to church enough, yada yada yada ..could really give way into the deepest parts of your heart..ya see, you...right now...where you are in your life...is where Christ couldn't love you anymore than he does at this very moment. He has come to set you free rom relying on yourself to just do all of these good things, to stay away from the "sinful" life..He has come to set you free from living for him through your own strength and through your own SELF. apart from Him, apart from the Holy Spirit, apart from his supernatural power working in you, you can do nothing....and could it be that you have tried living the "free" life in Jesus actually chained up? in fact, lets go a little deeper here..you were the one who put your own chains on...

He has come to set you FREE from relying on yourself to live for Him...He has got to see you raise your white flag in surrender before He will invade you with the Holy Spirit...when that happens, all of your needs to have mans approval on your "got to's" will be traded in for his "i want to's..." 

and then, THATS when you will REALLY experience the freedom He came to set you free for...

"It is for freedom that Christ has set us free...stand firm therefore and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery..." 

...that chain of slavery could be your chains of self and of mans approval...

think about it. are you really walking in freedom?

because walking in freedom is a life consumed and submerged in Jesus...

in resting in who HE is, not in who you NEED to be...

when it's about Him and not you, transformation will begin to take place...

it's the ONLY way to truly live free...

Jesus has set you free from trying to win the approval of man ( Galations 1:10 )
Jesus could not love you anymore than He does right now...so you can stop trying to earn his love... he loves you already...just love him back...( Romans 8:31-39)
Jesus will equip you for every good work...( 2 Timothy 3:17 )
Jesus will produce the fruit in you when you remain in him...hidden in who he is..( John 15:5 )
Jesus promises you that HIS burden is light and his load is easy...( Matthew 11:28-30 )
JESUS empowers you ( anoints you)...you CAN'T empower or anoint yourself... only Jesus can...         ( Luke 4:18-19 )

Let Him show you what REAL freedom looks like,
love in Jesus,
Ash