Freedom Fridays

Coffee Hour @ Chicklit Power...

It’s Freedom Friday! Grab your drink and your strand of faith and let’s go tie some more knots in our faith!

What is the opposite of freedom?

There are many words that mean the opposite of freedom.  Two words that jump out at me are “captivity” and “enslavement.”  Did you know that what we aren’t free from enslaves us?  That sounds pretty harsh but it is a stark reality.

Galatians 5:1 “[The Life of Freedom] 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.”

We can become a slave to our own emotions.  These can lead us around without us even knowing it sometimes.  It clouds our judgement, our reactions and interferes with our sleep. It is possible to be free, truly free and not let our feelings dictate our actions.  The key is to always turn towards God when we start to feel the pull of those emotions.  That sounds easy; it’s not, but it is possible. 

I have struggled with depression for many years, more than I even realized.  I found it difficult to sleep or even eat sometimes.  I have recently turned a corner in my freedom walk which involved walking away from my depression.  I didn’t even realize it until recently. There is a situation wherein depression had the opportunity to take hold of me and it simply didn’t.  But I discovered something powerful: The root of my depression was anger, and anger that started forming in me at age 3 when I was first molested! That anger ran deeper and grew stronger over the years when I was molested and then raped at 15. 

The crazy thing is I didn’t realize I was angry until I received some counsel and was told it was ok to be angry.  That opened up a flood gate so wide that I was worried I wouldn’t be able to close it.  I didn’t know I was free of it until I was in a hurtful situation and I was sad but I didn’t fall into the pit of depression. I was/am free from the anger! 

Part of what helped me was this quote from Nancy Leigh DeMoss in her book Choosing Forgiveness.  “God does not want you to run away from your pain but to run to Him in the midst of your pain -  to fly head-on into the full fury of it, to face it, to let Him meet you right where it hurts and give you the grace to be set free from any bondage to that hurt.” 

It is possible to be free from every bondage that holds us back.  No matter how deep or how long the pain has been there.  It just takes time, grace (for and to self as well as for/to others) and a whole lot of running to His arms.

Run as fast as you can; let loose the chains that have been holding you back and take flight in His freedom for you!

Running towards my freedom,

Jennifer