The Biggest Hindrance to Freedom Provided for us by Christ.
The greatest hindrance to our freedom in Christ is not legalism, tradition nor religious obligation so prevalent in institutional religion today. As binding as those things can be, a more powerful tyrant holds us captive from the true depths of Father's life and joy.....SELF! We can be free of all the others and we should be, yet remain captive to this one that matters most.
Many people are discovering just how much bondage organized religion has become in our day. While it promises a dynamic relationship with the Living God, it too often only offers a program of behavioural conformity that leaves many empty, manipulated and disillusioned. Watching God set people free from that bondage is always a joy. However, freedom from those things without also finding freedom from the tyranny of self only becomes an excuse for greater bondage to the flesh. Paul warned the Galatians just how true that is.
Our greatest captivity is not to any other person or system; it is to self. And the greater bondage here is not the appetites of the flesh we clearly know are sinful, but the agendas we hold for our own good. Trying to get God to do for me what I think is best has tripped me up far more effectively, than more obvious sins.
Eugene Peterson put it this way: "Since Jesus went through everything you're going through and more, learn to think and act like him. Think of your sufferings as a weaning away from the old sinful habit of always expecting to get your own way. Then you'll be able to live out your days free to pursue what God wants instead of being tyrannized by what you want."
Who wouldn't want to wake up everyday free to engage God's desires in their life? I'll tell you who: those who have no idea who God is. If you think him a demanding taskmaster, you will find his will not only frustrating but you'll also never be sure what it is. However, once you know him as he really is and are secure in how much he loves you, pursuing what he wants everyday will become your greatest joy.
Notice how Peter regards our self-nature. It is the tyrant, not God. There are no better words to describe our own agenda. When you go into a situation having to get your own way, don't you feel tyrannized.. We are so afraid we wouldn't be able to survive if we didn't get what we wanted that we pressure ourselves and everyone else to conform to what we think best. The weight of pulling that off is a tyranny all its own and a source of great anxiety for us and manipulation for others.
The real joy of being God's child is waking up everyday with the simple freedom to join God in what he wants and what He is doing. As Jesus said, he is always working, in our lives and in people around us. He wants to share in the delight of that working, as a Father with his son or daughter. There is no greater freedom than to do so without distorting that with false needs and misplaced wants.
How does that freedom come? Do you think you can just read an article or book about it and turn around and do it? How does God free us from our own agenda and teach us how much fun it is to embrace his? He does it by defying our misplaced expectations. That's why Peter encouraged us to think of our sufferings as God's way of weaning us away from having to get our own way.
Peter didn't say he orchestrates our sufferings. He doesn't create your troubles to teach you a lesson, but simply uses the troubles of life in this age to show you his freedom. He just graciously refuses to settle for flawed agendas and continues to fulfill his own in the lives of those who have asked him to do so.
He doesn't deny us what we want to frustrate us, but to show us that he knows best about everything. The only way we figure that out is to watch our hard-fought agendas fall to nothing and to see God's working exceed our greatest expectations.
This is not an easy process, as I'm sure you already know. When God doesn't do the things we expect him to, we often wonder if he doesn't love us, or if we haven't done enough to earn his favour. Only by knowing that he loves you completely will you ever be able to go through moments of suffering as the weaning process he desires.
God's not punishing you he is fulfilling your hunger at a deeper level. God will maneuver circumstances that will continue to draw us closer to him and closer to what he really had in mind for us. He will open doors we didn't even knock on. He will show us that his idea of ministry make ours look like garbage in comparison. He really does know what is best for us everyday and is fully capable to lead us to it as long as we keep inviting him to do so.
The key is learning how to live each day in the expectancy of God's working in the circumstances of our life, without giving in to the expectation that it must look any particular way to satisfy us.
Imagine the freedom of no longer having to try and manipulate God or others toward your desired outcome. Instead, you can simply find out what he is up to, and though it will often seem more painful in the short-term than you might want, his ways are always the best....not only in resolving our circumstances but transforming us through them.
Wouldn't we be truly free if we could, instead of being so focused on the outcomes we desire, we could simply trust that regardless of the outcome, God is doing his work in and through us. Now instead of wasting our time trying to get him on our page, we can simply enjoy our fellowship with him as he moves us to his. And it is a lot more peaceful walking with God on his page, than constantly trying to figure out how to get him on yours.
What God has been doing in you since the day you came to know him, is to liberate you from the tyranny of self. He knows that your ability to live in his rest, peace and joy, will not come when you get everything you want, but when you forsake all your wants and embrace his.
He has something far better in mind. We want him to change our circumstances so we would never have the need to feel insecure. He wants to change us so that no circumstance would ever make us insecure again.
He allows circumstances to confront our greatest insecurities over and over again. In spite of our cries for relief, he will keep showing up for us every day, swallowing our pain with his love and gently pointing us toward a better way.
So if you find God defying some of your most passionate expectations, just consider that he is doing something more extraordinary in you than you have yet grasped. He is expressing his love to you at a deeper level so that you will no longer have to bow to the tyranny of self.
By opening your eyes to that reality he is showing you how to be truly free--not just from legalism, works or religious obligation, but from a more powerful foe still. He wants you to be free of you, and only by doing so will you be able to know the person he created you to be.
You'll find that freedom to be one of God's greatest gifts. It will allow you to enjoy him more deeply and to recognize more easily how he wants you to share in his work around you.
You, too, will wake up each day excited to embrace what God wants rather than being forced by the tyranny of your own wants. This freedom is like no other.
Many people are discovering just how much bondage organized religion has become in our day. While it promises a dynamic relationship with the Living God, it too often only offers a program of behavioural conformity that leaves many empty, manipulated and disillusioned. Watching God set people free from that bondage is always a joy. However, freedom from those things without also finding freedom from the tyranny of self only becomes an excuse for greater bondage to the flesh. Paul warned the Galatians just how true that is.
Our greatest captivity is not to any other person or system; it is to self. And the greater bondage here is not the appetites of the flesh we clearly know are sinful, but the agendas we hold for our own good. Trying to get God to do for me what I think is best has tripped me up far more effectively, than more obvious sins.
Eugene Peterson put it this way: "Since Jesus went through everything you're going through and more, learn to think and act like him. Think of your sufferings as a weaning away from the old sinful habit of always expecting to get your own way. Then you'll be able to live out your days free to pursue what God wants instead of being tyrannized by what you want."
Who wouldn't want to wake up everyday free to engage God's desires in their life? I'll tell you who: those who have no idea who God is. If you think him a demanding taskmaster, you will find his will not only frustrating but you'll also never be sure what it is. However, once you know him as he really is and are secure in how much he loves you, pursuing what he wants everyday will become your greatest joy.
Notice how Peter regards our self-nature. It is the tyrant, not God. There are no better words to describe our own agenda. When you go into a situation having to get your own way, don't you feel tyrannized.. We are so afraid we wouldn't be able to survive if we didn't get what we wanted that we pressure ourselves and everyone else to conform to what we think best. The weight of pulling that off is a tyranny all its own and a source of great anxiety for us and manipulation for others.
The real joy of being God's child is waking up everyday with the simple freedom to join God in what he wants and what He is doing. As Jesus said, he is always working, in our lives and in people around us. He wants to share in the delight of that working, as a Father with his son or daughter. There is no greater freedom than to do so without distorting that with false needs and misplaced wants.
How does that freedom come? Do you think you can just read an article or book about it and turn around and do it? How does God free us from our own agenda and teach us how much fun it is to embrace his? He does it by defying our misplaced expectations. That's why Peter encouraged us to think of our sufferings as God's way of weaning us away from having to get our own way.
Peter didn't say he orchestrates our sufferings. He doesn't create your troubles to teach you a lesson, but simply uses the troubles of life in this age to show you his freedom. He just graciously refuses to settle for flawed agendas and continues to fulfill his own in the lives of those who have asked him to do so.
He doesn't deny us what we want to frustrate us, but to show us that he knows best about everything. The only way we figure that out is to watch our hard-fought agendas fall to nothing and to see God's working exceed our greatest expectations.
This is not an easy process, as I'm sure you already know. When God doesn't do the things we expect him to, we often wonder if he doesn't love us, or if we haven't done enough to earn his favour. Only by knowing that he loves you completely will you ever be able to go through moments of suffering as the weaning process he desires.
God's not punishing you he is fulfilling your hunger at a deeper level. God will maneuver circumstances that will continue to draw us closer to him and closer to what he really had in mind for us. He will open doors we didn't even knock on. He will show us that his idea of ministry make ours look like garbage in comparison. He really does know what is best for us everyday and is fully capable to lead us to it as long as we keep inviting him to do so.
The key is learning how to live each day in the expectancy of God's working in the circumstances of our life, without giving in to the expectation that it must look any particular way to satisfy us.
Imagine the freedom of no longer having to try and manipulate God or others toward your desired outcome. Instead, you can simply find out what he is up to, and though it will often seem more painful in the short-term than you might want, his ways are always the best....not only in resolving our circumstances but transforming us through them.
Wouldn't we be truly free if we could, instead of being so focused on the outcomes we desire, we could simply trust that regardless of the outcome, God is doing his work in and through us. Now instead of wasting our time trying to get him on our page, we can simply enjoy our fellowship with him as he moves us to his. And it is a lot more peaceful walking with God on his page, than constantly trying to figure out how to get him on yours.
What God has been doing in you since the day you came to know him, is to liberate you from the tyranny of self. He knows that your ability to live in his rest, peace and joy, will not come when you get everything you want, but when you forsake all your wants and embrace his.
He has something far better in mind. We want him to change our circumstances so we would never have the need to feel insecure. He wants to change us so that no circumstance would ever make us insecure again.
He allows circumstances to confront our greatest insecurities over and over again. In spite of our cries for relief, he will keep showing up for us every day, swallowing our pain with his love and gently pointing us toward a better way.
So if you find God defying some of your most passionate expectations, just consider that he is doing something more extraordinary in you than you have yet grasped. He is expressing his love to you at a deeper level so that you will no longer have to bow to the tyranny of self.
By opening your eyes to that reality he is showing you how to be truly free--not just from legalism, works or religious obligation, but from a more powerful foe still. He wants you to be free of you, and only by doing so will you be able to know the person he created you to be.
You'll find that freedom to be one of God's greatest gifts. It will allow you to enjoy him more deeply and to recognize more easily how he wants you to share in his work around you.
You, too, will wake up each day excited to embrace what God wants rather than being forced by the tyranny of your own wants. This freedom is like no other.
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