It’s Freedom Friday! Grab whatever you’re having for break, and don’t forget your SOF (Strand of Faith!) We have some more knots to tie to stay stronger in our freedom journey!
What if it isn’t what you think it is?
This sounds like a lofty statement, something you may hear from a professor in a college class. Part of the freedom journey is learning to see things through new lenses, really trying to understand if things are what we have built them up to be.
In my blog a few weeks ago I addressed the issue of us carrying around offenses that may not really be offenses, just things or situations that we have taken personally. Seeing through new lenses helps us to recognize this powerful truth in our freedom journey.
Through deeply analyzing why I do what I do in some situations, I have come across a new way of thinking:
“As I think in my heart, so am I.” Proverbs 23:7
This could have a lot of different life applications. I am looking at this scripture as plain, straight-forward truth. Sometimes we build up things and give them meaning way beyond the reality of it. This starts to encode in us responses to things that feel similar; thereafter, we react without thinking it through. This can also help us in dangerous situations and protect us from accidents.
The reality is that we are always in this “reaction” mode. Most of us believe that we think then react but in reality it’s the opposite. Part of freedom is taking a step back and looking at our responses.
Through this I realized that others need freedom too! (Duh! ☺) This may seem like a strange and self-centered insight. It may be, but it comes from me feeling like everyone around me has it together or doesn’t need freedom like I do.
This thinking stems from my own brokenness and thoughts of being unworthy. If people have hurt me, I must have deserved it somehow. I am now recognizing that this isn’t necessarily true, just the way my thinking has been shaped.
To realize that others need freedom as much as I do was a huge freedom step for me. I was released from my own bondage of thinking that I was less than others and it has helped me see others where they are at– hurting! Hurt people hurt people and un-free people struggle in their own bondage.
The way I felt I was being treated was not what I thought it was.
"Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering." Mark 5:34
Finding freedom requires embracing risk and a willingness to admit our thinking has been wrong. God wants to free you from your suffering too, but you have a role to play in the process. What "next right step" are you willing to take TODAY to find the freedom you seek?
Walking forward,
Jennifer
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