Fixed In The Facts Of Freedom
“My soul melteth for heaviness: strengthen thou me according unto thy word.” Psalm 119:28 (KJV)
Consider the following scenario: Last evening you elected to deviate from your routine behavior. You retired for the evening earlier than normal because you were not feeling like yourself. You sensed a few slight but not significant symptoms of what you believed to be the beginning of a cold.
You sensed a small scratchy feeling in your throat. You were feeling a little warmer than usual which seemed to indicate a moderate increase in body temperature. Then you experienced a little pressure on both sides of your head. What started as an infrequent amount of sneezing then morphed into moderate mode. So you decided to call it a night by taking a couple of aspirins and flooding yourself with fluids and Vitamin C. Your preventive measures looked promising and a good night of rest should rebuke any potential storm of sickness, right?
While you sought a sweet and sound state of slumber in your warm and inviting bed, a maelstrom of sickness instead arrested you in a bed of affliction. Your bed turned into a ship of dread. You are mercilessly being tossed to and fro in mayhem of woe! Terrible torrents of body aches and formidable feverish chills rocked you all night long! Your throat felt like you were trying to swallow a cow! To compound your complications, a call from the stomach below indicates you are about to blow because you are being nailed by relentless and nasty nausea!
Early before the break of dawn you called your Doctor in hopes that he would deliver you from the devil of a night that you endured. Then you remembered you should have called on Jesus! So now you began to pray that God would smile on you and give you favor today. Immediately you are aware that God was moving because the Doctor directed you to come in right away. After the preliminary paperwork and documentation of insurance (another pain) you find yourself in the presence of your professional, personable Doctor. Within seconds you hear the standard question: How do you feel?
It's no secret that we are swallowed up by a culture that is overly-fixated with how we feel. Unfortunately, a large number of churches are capitalizing on our feeling-based culture rather than convicting them with Truth! Addressing our felt needs has become a staple for the solutions of all our issues. Too often we approach our issues with carnal inquires:
Do you feel like coming or going?
Do you feel confident?
Do you feel capable?
Do you feel loved?
Do you feel like you are going to Heaven!
When it comes down to our freedom in Christ, we must fix ourselves in the facts of our freedom and not the feel of our freedom. According to the Scriptures, we must walk by faith and not by sight (Romans 10:17). The Apostle John also reminds us that we don’t feel that we have eternal life but we know that we have eternal life.
“These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God.” 1 John 5:13 (KJV)
It is only when we believe and act upon the truth of Scripture, rather than our feelings, that we can enjoy the true freedom born out of a relationship with Jesus Christ. Join me again next week when we will continue to enjoy biblical freedom!
For the Glory of God,
PBKSR