892 Free To Be Happy

Here in America, this weekend we celebrate Independence Day. Flags will be waving, anthems will be playing, families and friends will gather as fireworks are set off into the sky. We celebrate FREEDOM. Freedom allows us to live fully. Freedom promises opportunities and possibilities. Freedom brings joy and happiness because all that has served to hold us back has been conquered. As followers of Christ, we live in the ultimate freedom. Free from all the enemy intended to enslave you. All the hurts of your past that were meant to be chains around your ankles, those have been broken. You can walk on out of that now. All the regrets of today that were tied around your neck to choke the life out of you, have been removed. You can breathe in life now. The prisons of your own choices, your own habits, your own failures, your own sins, well those prisons no longer have doors. Jesus blew the doors right off so you can walk on out. You can move on now. And girl, you can be happy. You have been set FREE. Jesus said in John 8:36 “So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.” And freedom is what Jesus had in mind as he accepted the penalty for your shortcomings. As he hung on the cross, his intentions were to set you free so you could live the life intended for you here right now, and for eternity. Jesus isn’t just for Heaven. He isn’t just for the eternity awaiting you after this life. HE IS FOR EVERY DAY OF YOUR LIFE. He is for this exact day. He is for the very things that threaten to hold you back today. He is for the precise doubts your wrestle with today. He is for this season, this phase, and this space in your life. He’s all up in this middle of this, waving your freedom flag. Jesus has overcome this trouble. This problem has already been solved by him. This mountain has been moved. The path has been made. The chains have been broken. The door to this prison has already been ripped off it’s hinges. Jesus has given you the freedom to LIVE. To live not just when things are all good, but live when things are still seemingly bad. How do you do that exactly? How do you still live when mountains still stand in the way? When all you see is a mess and no clear way through it? When you still feel stuck, held back, limited, imprisoned, defeated, hopeless and helpless? You take your eyes off of what is seen, what is here and now, and you trust what is unseen and what is to come. 2 Corinthians 4:18 “So we don’t look at the troubles we can see now; rather, we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen. For the things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever.” You can only see to the corner, but God sees around the corner. God sees how this is all going to be used together for good, even while at this moment it’s hard to find an ounce of goodness in some of your reality. My sister, you just haven’t seen what he has for you around this corner. You have no idea of the blessings and favor awaiting you. But God is asking you to fix your gaze on those promises. He’s asking you to look right through the troubles you see today and live in freedom knowing this doesn’t hold you back. You are not defeated. You are not hopeless. You are not helpless. You are not stuck. You are not limited. And you don’t have to be held back because Jesus has set you FREE. THIS DOESN’T HOLD YOU BACK. This is temporary. This will not last forever. This is not the end. God has already made a way around it and he will show you step by step … or he’s made a way right through it, and he’s ready to carry you. Stop looking around at how bad it is. Stop broadcasting to the world every detail of all that has gone wrong. The enemy doesn’t deserve a billboard of his crappy attacks. Instead, walk in confidence knowing this battle has already been won.