“Set me free!”

READ: Deut. 25-27; Gal. 5

Topic: live a life of freedom (forgiveness)

SCRIPTURE:
Deut 25:13-16 Don't carry around with you two weights, one heavy and the other light, and don't keep two measures at hand, one large and the other small. Use only one weight, a true and honest weight, and one measure, a true and honest measure, so that you will live a long time on the land that God, your God, is giving you. Dishonest weights and measures are an abomination to God, your God—all this corruption in business deals!
Gal 5:1 Christ has set us free to live a free life. So take your stand! Never again let anyone put a harness of slavery on you.
Gal 5:4-10 I suspect you would never intend this, but this is what happens. When you attempt to live by your own religious plans and projects, you are cut off from Christ, you fall out of grace. Meanwhile we expectantly wait for a satisfying relationship with the Spirit. For in Christ, neither our most conscientious religion nor disregard of religion amounts to anything. What matters is something far more interior: faith expressed in love. You were running superbly! Who cut in on you, deflecting you from the true course of obedience? This detour doesn't come from the One who called you into the race in the first place. And please don't toss this off as insignificant. It only takes a minute amount of yeast, you know, to permeate an entire loaf of bread. Deep down, the Master has given me confidence that you will not defect. But the one who is upsetting you, whoever he is, will bear the divine judgment.
Gal 5:14; 16-18 …serve one another in love; that's how freedom grows. For everything we know about God's Word is summed up in a single sentence: Love others as you love yourself. That's an act of true freedom. My counsel is this: Live freely, animated and motivated by God's Spirit. Then you won't feed the compulsions of selfishness. For there is a root of sinful self-interest in us that is at odds with a free spirit, just as the free spirit is incompatible with selfishness. These two ways of life are antithetical, so that you cannot live at times one way and at times another way according to how you feel on any given day. Why don't you choose to be led by the Spirit and so escape the erratic compulsions of a law-dominated existence?
Gal 5:19-23 It is obvious what kind of life develops out of trying to get your own way all the time: repetitive, loveless, cheap sex; a stinking accumulation of mental and emotional garbage; frenzied and joyless grabs for happiness; trinket gods; magic-show religion; paranoid loneliness; cutthroat competition; all-consuming-yet-never-satisfied wants; a brutal temper; an impotence to love or be loved; divided homes and divided lives; small-minded and lopsided pursuits; the vicious habit of depersonalizing everyone into a rival; uncontrolled and uncontrollable addictions; ugly parodies of community. I could go on. But what happens when we live God's way? He brings gifts into our lives, much the same way that fruit appears in an orchard—things like affection for others, exuberance about life, serenity. We develop a willingness to stick with things, a sense of compassion in the heart, and a conviction that a basic holiness permeates things and people. We find ourselves involved in loyal commitments, not needing to force our way in life, able to marshal and direct our energies wisely.

OBSERVATION:
Somehow I got weights in my hands – different weights. It pulled me down. I no longer existed in God’s freedom, but as a law-abiding citizen. I definitely no longer want to live that way. I literally sucks the life out of me.

APPLICATION:
Talk to God and ask Him to set me free! As for forgiveness!

PRAYER:
“Lord I’ve been hiding in so many different ways. I ask Your forgiveness for placing different weights on me. I forgive those who has hurt me Lord, but God I pray that You would come and heal my heart, it desperately needs healing. I ask today for Your freedom life. I ask for wisdom in these particular relationships that I’ve struggled in. God I seek Your face today and beg Your forgiveness. Forgive me for being so stubborn. Forgive me for letting bitterness and hurt creep into my heart. Set me free today Lord. Give me eyes to see the truth. Set me free! In the Name of Jesus Christ, Amen.”