Gal 5.13

//For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.//

Galatians 5.13

Freedom in Christ frees me to give away my life for the Gospel. It frees me for a life of service. It gives opportunity after opportunity for the service of others, rather than the service of my flesh. Freedom to serve is freedom because the choice is mine, no one is forcing me to do it. When we are truly free in Christ, service is a gift and not a chore. When we are freed from our desires and wants, we are compelled to serve out of love for Christ.

Since we changed rooms on Friday, I have walked right into my old room several times not even thinking about it. By the time I realize what I have done, I am totally caught by surprise. As I was thinking about freedom, the Lord used this example to open my eyes. As humans we walk right towards what we are familiar with. It isn’t a conscious decision but becomes a natural one for us. When something changes and what is familiar is no longer ours, our routine is thrown off. Even though room 5 isn’t my room anymore, I am still drawn there. The same is for the man or woman living in freedom. We have been set free from sin and a life lived for the flesh, and while we have been gifted this new life of freedom found in the spirit, often we still walk right into that old room of the flesh out of comfort and familiarity. The old rooms screams self and the fruit of it is bondage. The new life screams freedom and the fruit is service. As humans we are drawn to the comfortable. Our flesh desires the ease and familiarity of the old room of bondage. Bondage leads to death, but freedom is life. We are people of routine and as we do something over and over again it becomes second nature to us. Will our second nature be walking in freedom manifested in service, or will we be chained up in bondage that manifests in selfishness? Repetition creates routine. While we will always be warring against our flesh, the more we walk in freedom of the Spirit rather than bondage of the flesh, the more we will be transformed into people who serve in freedom rather than slavery. As we as made into His image and likeness from glory to glory, He won’t just change our outward actions, He will change our mind and our will to be His.

Lord bring me to a place where my flesh is so dead that walking into the old rooms of my comfort are foreign to me. I pray for love to abound in service because of the precious freedom you’ve poured out on me. 

Application: Today as I find my heart yearning for earthly comfort, I will take that moment to the Lord and ask for His comfort. I will take my desires of the flesh and present them as a living sacrifice  to Him.