Day 2558 of the 7 day Bible verse challenge.
John 8:32 NIV
Yesterday I shared how this journey of faith completely changes everything. It opens our eyes to things that we'd never noticed before. It confronts lies that we've long believed were true. It forces us to humbly admit that we don't know everything, and that in fact, much of what we do know is wrong. God's truth and our growth in the understanding of it will lead to a way of life that we never imagined before.
It opens the door to this freedom that our world can only pretend to offer. That's what trips so many people up. This place sells this version of freedom that seems perfect. Freedom to do whatever you want. Freedom from consequences. Freedom from responsibility. Freedom to focus on yourself. Freedom to use and abuse others if it makes you feel better. Freedom to live and behave like life is all about you and what you want.
That kind of thing is custom made to appeal to each of us. The world we're in tells us that it has everything we could ever hope to find. But as we grow, we learn. As we learn, we start to open our eyes. As we open our eyes, we start seeing different possibilities. As we start considering different possibilities, well, we're left with the painful realization that the way we've always lived may have been wrong. It may have all been built on this deceitful illusion of freedom that we thought the ways of this world gave us.
It's a hard pill to swallow. That's one of the things we discussed yesterday. The more we learn from God's word, the more we realize just how much we've gotten wrong. But that realization, as painful as it may be, it the very first step down a path to true freedom. Not a freedom to do whatever we want without question or consequence. Not freedom to throw caution to the wind and live as if nothing really matters. But a freedom from the lies and deception that have blinded us to reality for so long.
The freedom found in the truth of God's word may seem harsh at first because it confronts us where we are in all of our brokenness. It forces us to address things we'd rather keep avoiding. But it doesn't leave us there. It propels us to keep going because we start feeling this liberation that we'd never experienced before. We start understanding what it's like to let go of things that have held us captive and step into a life without limits or barriers.
Sadly, that freedom is something that many will probably never experience because it is only found in the truth. And as we've discussed at length many times, the truth will simply never be all that popular down here. But if we can find the courage to hear the truth, to listen to the realities that it conveys, and learn to appreciate the brutal honesty of who we've been compared to who God made us to be, then we're finally on the path that leads to something worth having. We're finally headed toward freedom.
As we talked about yesterday, it's not easy. It's not comfortable. The more we learn the more we'll understand just how bad things really are. The more we learn from God, the more we'll understand just how far we've gone in the wrong direction. But we have to understand where we are in order to grasp where we can be. We have to accept who we've been to understand who God can make us through the gift of His Son. And we can only do that with the truth.
So please don't run from what's hard. Don't avoid what makes you uncomfortable. Don't live in fear of the pain that the truth holds. It makes us better because the truth can't compromise and therefore won't allow us to settle. No matter what this world says, freedom is only found in the truth, and there is no better source of truth than God's word. Read it. Study it. Pursue the wisdom within it. And I promise it will change your life and lead to a freedom that this world can't comprehend!
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