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I AM FREE INDEED!

Writer's picture: Abundant and Free MinistriesAbundant and Free Ministries




I love to decorate my home for each of the major seasons. As soon as I take down my spring and Easter décor, up goes the red, white and blue. I celebrate the fact we live in the “Land of the Free” and we are the “Home of the Brave”. We have a son who serves as a psychologist in the U.S. Navy so I have a growing and deepening understanding of the price and sacrifice our service members pay everyday protecting our freedoms. I am patriotic to the very core of my being. As the song states, “I am proud to be an American!” But recently I have been contemplating what it really means to be free.


If we did a random survey on the street asking people, “What does it mean to be free?” I think we would be told that being free means:

Getting to do whatever whenever I want. Living without restraints. Being liberated. Not being coerced by any person or outside force. The ability to make my own choices. Being liberated, autonomous.


I have further been considering what freedom means to me on a personal level. I truly believe, as a Christian, our life of freedom should look different from the world’s view of freedom. The world’s view of freedom is very me-centered. As a Christ-follower, my view of freedom should be Him-centered. So what does the Bible have to say about being free?


“Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.” II Corinthians 3:17


“And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” John 8:32


“Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God.” 1 Peter 2:16


“Out of my distress I called on the Lord; the Lord answered me and set me free.” Psalm 118:5


“The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, Because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the afflicted; He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to captives and freedom to prisoners.” Isaiah 61:1


“So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.” John 8:36


“You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.” Romans 6:18


I have come to the conclusion that my ultimate freedom is when I relinquish ALL of my control and TOTALLY rest in Him. I must allow Him to fully abide in me so that He can NATURALLY flow out of me. The only way He can truly flow out of me is if we are one, in communion, and like-minded. The only way we can be one is if I am continually getting to know Him and who He is. We have to be in sync and the only way that can happen is through consistent time reading/knowing His Word and talking/communicating with Him in prayer.


A dear friend of our family recently lost his mother. I was communicating my sympathies to him and he began to tell me about the time surrounding her passing. In those last days, as she was mostly out of consciousness, her family would read to her from God’s Word. When there was a word that a family member wasn’t able to pronounce, this dear woman, who was near death, would ask for the word to be spelled and then she would pronounce it. There were times when, as a verse was read, she would finish the verse. As she was passing from this world into eternity, she was beginning to communicate with those waiting for her on the other side. She was a very Godly woman who had lived a life totally devoted to her Lord. And this devotion was evident all the way to death’s door. To her dying moment, He was flowing out of her.


That is the woman of God I desire to be: a woman who lives FREELY in and through Him; a woman who finishes the race of life totally devoted to Him; a woman who rests in Him by turning over her control to live under His control - even when life is shrinking away. THAT IS TRUE FREEDOM!



 

Pam Bandermann, from Cape Girardeau, MO, is married to Rick and they have 3 sons and 7 grandchildren. Pam is a semi-retired school district administrator and her passions are traveling, reading, serving college students through the ministry of her local church, and spending time with family and friends.

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