"How are you doing?" "You ok?" …."Fine" "Not bad"
Our small group is following a wonderful course called 'Freedom in Christ' and we were recently focusing on a number of statements about who we are in Christ. We can easily take these things from granted, so it's been good to stop and think more deeply about them (you can see them here).
One I was particularly moved by comes from these words:
"Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death." Romans 8:1,2 [NIV]
I'm generally a positive person, and having become a Christian in my teenage years until my late twenties I was very certain that I was free from condemnation of any kind. More recently I find that I really need to come back to these words, as I apply them to my life I really experience the truth setting me free.
It's not that I've done stuff wrong, I think it's more to do with being at a different stage of life with more to do, more calls on my time and (often) less sleep. Applying Scripture in this way, dwelling on it and savouring it is part of 'taking captive every thought' as Paul writes in another place.
As we discussed this in small group, several of us shared times when it has also been really helpful to talk and pray about it with close Christian friends. It really is important not only to know God is for us, but that we can be open with others in a way that leads to truth setting us free.
Are you seeing God's truth setting you free? What might you do to receive God's freedom more?
Have you got friends who want to know how you are really doing? What might you do to deepen friendships in this way?
Tim Norman
Read the Bible in a year: Psalm 119:137-144, Joel 1:1-2:17, Hebrews 3:1-19
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