Give Me Liberty

John 8:36- “Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed!”

This week I have been enjoying a time of vacationing with my family in Virginia. Ironically, on Independence Day we were actually visiting the sites of colonial Virginia. One of those sites was the battlefield in Yorktown. And as we walked around the site there were people wearing colors and tees representative of the day. One man I passed had a tee shirt that read, “Give me liberty, or give me death!” Of course, I knew it would be the title of my next blog.

Now if you remember your fifth grade history lessons at all, you may remember that Patrick Henry gave a speech in Richmond, where we actually vacationed, designed to cause those listening to him to understand his passion for independence and their need to prepare to bear arms against Great Britain. His parting words, “Give me liberty, or give me death,” are still remembered today.

As we have celebrated the 4th of July, the day the founding fathers of America signed the Declaration of Independence, we may have mixed feelings about when our freedom was actually acquired and what this day means to us. I for one am American and I am thankful to be American, although our history is shady at best, I am glad to be an American. I am not an African American, I am an American and I am Black! For another day!

This area also holds much history for our ancestors who were brought here as slaves. We visited Petersburg today, the site where the Civil War was finally ended, where Black soldiers fought alongside white soldiers for their freedom. My husband’s ancestor fought in this battle! Lol! We visited the entry point of the slaves in America and saw the auction block. Didn’t stop! I got the point!

As I saw that shirt I couldn’t help but think of my liberty in Christ Jesus! He said, in the verse above, if the Son makes you free, you are free indeed, and yet countless believers are not living in freedom. Yet Jesus Himself said that we are free indeed!

How can His word be true when our lives lie daily to that truth? I believe it is quite simple. We must believe that we are free!

Have you ever heard a story about an animal being trapped in a cage, or tied to a stake, or trapped in a jar who desperately tries over and over again to be freed to no avail? And then one day the animal just accepts its new reality and stay put, so that even when the restraints that held it in place is removed, it is still imprisoned in its mind? Well, I think that is the way with the vast majority of believers. They have been enslaved to the yoke of sin so long they have become comfortable with it and don’t know how to live without it. But you can have your liberty! Jesus said so!

Let’s say someone is bound by drugs. It’s all they ever knew. And when Jesus saves them and grants them their liberty, they return to the drugs. Or let’s say someone is bound by a lustful spirit, and Jesus comes into their life, the Great Liberator, but when they get alone, they still have those same desires to watch porn or to continue. in sin. They have been told that they are free, but they don’t believe that they are free. So even when the restraints of sin have been broken off of the lives of His people, if they don’t grasp or can’t grasp the truth of their freedom, nothing much has changed for their earthly situations in life.

It’s time to shout like Patrick Henry, “Give me liberty!” It has already been obtained for you, but you have to take it! Seize the moment! You have to understand that Christ has set you free and you are truly free! Then you live like it one day at a time with His amazing grace!!

Will it be easy? Not at first! But is it possible? Most definitely. I used to curse. A lot. Then one day I started to hungering for God like never before. I was a believer but I had a dirty mouth. I read the scripture about bitter and sweet water doesn’t come out of the same fountain (James 3:11). I decided I needed to be cleansed and free from that. After surrendering it over to the Lord in prayer, I got up determined my mouth would be clean. And you know what, it was! Overnight! No slips and dips, just free from a foul mouth.

Will it be that way for every one in every situation? No! I am still dying to my flesh in some other areas. But because I know I am to be free, I will have my liberty! The chains of darkness have been broken off my life and the lives of every believer, but we have to walk it out agreeing with Jesus that we are free indeed! Go declare your spiritual freedom as loudly as you declared your national freedom and then go and live it with His unlimited grace. Wonderful Jesus!