For you were called to freedom, brothers and sisters; only do not use your freedom as an opportunity to indulge your flesh, but through love serve one another. (Galatians 5:13)
I walked through San Francisco’s financial district wearing a custom tailored, sage-green suit. To the casual onlooker, I had the mark of success. I owned a respected business, loved a beautiful family, and gave liberally to charity. It was the American Christian dream.
In reality I was in bondage to the world system. I was a free son of the Most High God, voluntarily performing hard labor for my former warden. When Satan said worry, I lost sleep fretting. When he said act selfishly, I squandered my dignity on guilty pleasures. I had only given God my past and future, the devil controlled my present.
There are two brands of freedom. Only two. Freedom to serve a loving God or freedom to be enslaved to a vengeful devil. The version of freedom where we serve ourselves is false marketing, it’s Satan’s brand repackaged.
When I live within God’s moral boundaries, I’m liberated to love and dance inside a safely fenced yard. Those outside my protective barrier wag their heads and say I’m too hemmed in. But I tried living out there. I was tied up in fretfulness, snared by human acceptance, and a marionette beneath temporal pleasure.
I say, “No thank you,” to the devil’s brand. I am running to the one who calls me into his playground of freedom.
Prayer: Jesus, I choose freedom in you.