What is true freedom?
Freedom does not mean that we have the right to do anything.
Freedom is the ability to do what God wants us to do.
How can we become free?
Jesus Christ said: The Truth shall make you free
• I am the truth: As we grow in our personal commitment to Jesus Christ we become authentically free people.
• Thy Word is Truth: As we replace false notions in our mind and fill our minds with the truth we become authentically free people.
Realms of Freedom
In our relationship with God:
1. We can come to the throne of grace with great confidence because there is nothing that you can do to make God love you more and nothing that you can do to make God love you less.
In our relationship with others:
2. Freedom form the compulsion to please others
We are called to please God – in the process we may please some people and displease others.
3. Freedom from the need to control or manipulate others: Remember there is only one person in the world you can change – none other than your own self.
4. Freedom from the need to compete with others: Our race is not with others – our race is with our former selves – to become incrementally better than what we were before.
5. Freedom to say ‘NO’ to friends when they suggest wrong things or to ensure that the most important things in life are done.
In our relationship with one self:
6. Freedom form the compulsion to be perfect
7. Freedom from child hood injunctions: E.g. freedom to express emotions
8. Freedom form false expectations about life and reality
E.g.: expectation for a perfect world in the midst of fallen world effects.
9. Freedom from bad/wrong habits
Bad habits cannot be erased but can be replaced by good habits. One must apply so much attention to the good habits that one desires to install so that the bad habits slowly goes away like an unwelcome guest. Habits normally take 21 days to install.
10. Freedom form the much trodden path
We need to move out of our comfort zone and take a few risks to discover our own gifts. Our ultimate goal is to become all that our God given potential and the providence of God permit us to become.
11. Freedom in our thoughts:
Rom 12:1,2
Our mind is like a garden. We must nurture it.
Sow a thought – reap an action; sow an action – reap a habit; sow a habit reap a character; sow a character reap a destiny
12. Freedom from our past
Nothing is wasted in Gods economy. Every thing that happens to us is for our benefit – our learning. We may have made mistakes in the past. We must learn from them.
- The wise learn from others mistakes.
- The ordinary learn form their own mistakes
- The fool never learns
13. Freedom from anxieties regarding the future
14. Freedom form the bindings of tradition – some traditions go against the Scriptures. Mark 7:8,9
15. Freedom from the tyranny of our own self centeredness: Rom 7:15 to 8:1
