I learned some incredible truths from my experience at our Women's Retreat back in March. (Yes, I know that was a long time ago. )
I finally started to grasp one essential truth from a woman's honest struggle to live without an understanding of God's free gift of salvation. Here is her story, a God-appointed conversation with E* and the other ladies who "happened" to set down together at...
The Breakfast TableVarious conversations were going on around the table, but each one quieted as the focus was drawn to E*. She was sharing about her fears at work, and her anxiety about her recent return to work. She kept repeating, "if I have enough faith, I know I will be ok."
We all were drawn in by her words, by this burden she was sharing. As the conversation continued, it was evident that she felt she needed to be good enough to "cover" the sin in her life, that she was discouraged by her lack of a strong faith, and that if she could only be good enough her life would be good. She shared that she feels what the author of the "Footprints" poem felt... that God was not with her in the difficult times, that she was walking that path alone.
Tears sprang to my eyes as I realized the bondage E* has been living in, anxiety that her good works would not cover all her sins, that the struggles in her life were caused
by her sin. This woman was in such bondage, she had such a wrong, evil view of God!!!
I thought,
"No, that is not who God is!! We have to tell her the truth!!" Difficult things are not always the result of personal sin, we can never be good enough to earn salvation, and it is by God's free gift of faith, not our own works, that we are saved!!!Thankfully, each woman at the table was able to share God's truth with her, and E* began to realize the free gift God offers. I saw a woman, freed from her heavy burden, ready to learn to live life in the freedom God offers.
Our conversation continued to resonate in my soul, and I started to understand how her state of bondage was not too different from my own.
How often do I live feeling like I need to meet some list of expectations to be a "good Christian"? What unnecessary burdens do I carry? What works do I feel I must accomplish to earn God's delight??? It is as if I am living in a prison cell, and God has unlocked it and set me free. Yet, instead of running out, living a life free, free to simply be motivated by a desire to do what will bring Him the most glory, I stay in the cell. Some days I even decorate it and try to make it look pretty. Other days I complain about its tight constraints, the lack of space, or variety.
I fail to realize, understand, or acknowledge that the door is wide open. God has set me free!!! Yes, the outside world may be more difficult to negotiate, it may even be dangerous and take a lot more work. Yet it is beautiful, wonderful, and free.
So what do I want? A life of slavery, of trying to meet my own expectations of righteousness and holding others to that same list??
Or...
A life of freedom, lived in the Spirit, by the Spirit?
I am pretty sure I didn't read "having a clean house" as a fruit of the Spirit... nor is it anywhere in the Ten Commandments or taught by Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount. Yet what do I spend a good chunk of time obsessing about???
I am going to choose freedom. I am going to use my "Get Out of Jail Free" card. What about you??? What is your prison?? Do you know the door is open???
It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery.
But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.
Galatians 5:1, 16, 22-23
For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast Ephesians 2:8-9
