Your Moment at the Well
The Lord’s insight. Freedom in Christ means we now have freedom from our selves.
Galatians 5:1: “Stand fast in the liberty by which Christ has made us free.”
1 Corinthians 10:24: “Let no one seek his own, but each one the other’s well-being.”
I stopped to put gas for my car. While doing that, a recording from the pump started blasting loudly to me about buying a hotdog while I got my gas. All I wanted was gas and silence. Instead, while shopping for gas, I was shopped by the station for more money.
I was seated waiting to board my flight home. Another passenger came and sat across from me. He started playing his music so loudly that I had to move. I wanted to sit quietly and just wait to fly home. I had to endure his entertainment when I didn’t want entertainment.
I ordered a pair of pants online using my phone. Now I cannot stop advertisements for pants from popping up on my phone trying to get me to buy more. All I wanted was to shop different vendors for pants. I didn’t want to be shopped by different vendors for money.
We are past a time in life where we must learn that our freedom to do things will almost always impact the freedoms others have to be free from the things we do. It was a life changing revelation for me when I accepted that when Christ sets me free from something, my freedom shouldn’t become bondage to someone else.
Perhaps Galatians 5:1 is saying to us, “The Lord will free us from this sin or that sin, but we ought not by our freedoms snare others by our freedom. Freedom from doesn’t mean we have the freedom to do as we please. Perhaps freedom from means we are now free to depend on the Lord.
Freedom from has helped me see selfishness in a different way now because the Lord opened my eyes to the liberty I have in Him. Before, I thought selfishness was only about being more focused on me. Me first. Me, myself, and I. You get it.
But now I see more clearly that there is a second attribute of selfishness, and it is a sin that stands out before the Lord. When I am focused on myself, I am not focused on or caring about others. 1 Corinthians 10:24 is saying to me don’t just be about what is best and good for me but think about and bring about what is best and good for others.
Yes, we have inherent rights as people to basic things in life. We have the right to play our music. We have the right to sell our products. We have the inherent right to be free and to live happily and fulfilled. But these rights are to be found in a life with Christ.
When we seek to fulfill these rights outside of Christ we sin just as Eve and Adam did. Eve saw the fruit and thought how pleasant it would be to have it for herself and for her husband. They ate; they sinned. We must learn we come to be free to do as we like because we become free from the need to do as we please.
If you want pleasant-looking fruit or if you want a great paying job or if you want to own your own business, look first to find those things in the Lord. He will help to keep your freedom to have from becoming snares to those seeking to be free from how you live with what you have.
Don’t allow your selfish focus on yourself to cause you to become an unwanted voice blasting out all over your surroundings “I love my hotdogs, why don’t you try one?” Don’t allow your selfish focus on yourself to keep you from realizing what is good for you may not be good for others.
Christ sets us free from ourselves so that we can depend on Him for ourselves. Christ sets us free from ourselves so that we can help Him provide good for others who are not yet free as we are. We are freed from ourselves so that we can become free to depend on Him.
Live a Delivered Life.
Live Delivered 