Freedom and Personal Responsibility - Monday Devo
Read John 8:30-47
Honestly it is really hard to live free. By free I don’t mean that we don’t have rules that we have to follow as part of a society. I mean it is really hard to live free in my identity, in my heart, in my mind when Satan's native language is “lie.”
So much of what we do, how we operate, and what we think comes down to what we believe overall. Down to the day, and even to the moment.
Psychology actually tells us that what we believe will determine how we process our emotions in any given situation. This is defined as our feelings, or expressions in our mind, and heart of our emotions. If my emotions are based on my core belief system, whether right or wrong, it will dictate how I feel, and therefore act, in a moment or surrounding a situation in my life.
The book of Genesis (first book in the bible) tells us that 1. God created the world, and 2. That humanity is created in His image. God makes the rules. He created how things work. When things don’t operate the way that they were created, things go wrong.
Satan is the Father of all lies. When he lies he speaks his native language. Every time we believe Satan’s lies we will not act the way that God intended, and things go wrong. Our “belief” in that moment is in a lie, therefore we will not live in the freedom that we have been given from those lies.
In Genesis 3, the serpent came and lied to Eve and Adam. He had them believe deep down that they could define their own morality. That God didn’t really have their best interest in mind, but His own. They believed the lie and it led them to sin. It was believing the lie that led to brokenness in the world through sin, because that belief led to action.
Put that all together and everytime we believe a lie from Satan we will not act in accordance with what God has said is right, and in line with true freedom.
This passage in John says that Christ, the Son, came to set us free, and that we will be free indeed, in Him.
I have experienced this truth in my own life often. I am meant to live loved, cherished, purposeful, significant, etc. Though so often I believe the opposite, and it leads me to a feeling of being paralyzed, unable to come out of the trap, and just totally unmotivated for anything.
Jesus died to give me Life. Life the way it was meant to be before the brokenness that sin brought about. Life like in the garden of Eden in perfect, joyful, communion with God. Even in the midst of a world still broken by the fall, we can live believing the truth, therefore living free.
Here is where personal responsibility comes in. 2 Peter 1:3-4 says that God’s divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness. He has given it to us, yet so many of us do not do the daily work of learning, and availing ourselves of what he has given us. Instead when we allow the world, the flesh, and the devil to dictate what we believe and we are living as a slave to those things. Take responsibility for seeking God, knowing the truth of His word, which God has given to us. He has changed our identity, and now we need to take responsibility to live in that truth. For me the idea of personal responsibility is so freeing. No one else can do this for me, and that is motivating to me.
I hope and pray my rambling has been helpful.
–Nick
