Free AND Independent

Today is the second day of school for my two boys and Uriah (my 6 year old) got up bright and early. It's not so much that he's excited about going to school as much as he's excited to ride his bike to school! You see he recently learned to do this about a month ago. Even though our older son Jalen (who's 7) knew how to ride his bike last year, Uriah didn't, so they both walked to and from school. However, it's a new day! Uriah's always been free to ride his bike, but he did not have the ability to exercise that right. However, now that Uriah can actually ride his bike, he's ready to exercise his new independence.

I live in the great USA and we have many freedoms and rights that people around the world do not. For example, the right to worship is one of them. However, even though many Americans are "free" to worship, they don't exercise that right. To take this even further, Jesus died on the cross to give us freedom from the land of sin, but yet some choose NOT to receive Him and be independent from that dictatorship. Therefore, without Jesus, you may have the right to freedom but not the ability to leave the land of sin.

One thing God showed through my son this morning is that as a Christian, I need to be excited about exercising my freedom of independence from sin. It's mine and I don't want to take it for granted. What about you? Are you a believer exercising your right of independence? If so, be excited about it! Read these following verses out loud as a reminder to yourself that you not only have the right to freedom, but you're blessed to exercise your independence!

Romans 6:1-3 (The Message) “So what do we do? Keep on sinning so God can keep on forgiving? I should hope not! If we’ve left the country where sin is sovereign, how can we still live in our old house there? Or didn’t you realize we packed up and left there for good? That is what happened in baptism. When we went under the water, we left the old country of sin behind; when we came up out of the water, we entered into the new country of grace—anew life in a new land!”

6:12-14 (The Message) “That means you must not give sin a vote in the way you conduct your lives. Don’t give it the time of day. Don’t even run little errands that are connected with that old way of life. Throw yourselves wholeheartedly and full-time—remember,you’ve been raised from the dead!—into God’s way of doing things. Sin can’t tell you how to live. After all, you’re not living under that old tyranny any longer. You’re living in the freedom of God.”

Blessed in the land of the free in the US and in Jesus!!