Worthy Devotions - Daily Christian Devotional » Freedom

John 10:10 The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.

The enemy has only come to lie to us, kill and destroy us. The rejection we receive is ultimately from him — the person who outwardly does the rejecting is merely a pawn in his game. That rejection is a lie! Over time we begin to believe that lie until it finally becomes truth in our hearts. We can live a lifetime believing that lie. We can spend years and years covering for it as we talked about yesterday, with pride, fear and rebellion. And these build walls — walls that imprison us — and isolate us from the ones we love.

Here is step two in getting free. We must refuse those lies that our enemy instilled in us. We must do the rejecting now! And then choose to believe God’s truths about us. That we are loved, protected, healed — blessed in every way.

This is a walk of faith. Let’s ask the Lord again to reveal what we need to know in order to be truly free.

Psalms 55:22 Cast thy burden upon the LORD, and he shall sustain thee: he shall never suffer the righteous to be moved.

One of my favorite heroes of the faith is Hudson Taylor. For those who are unfamiliar with Hudson Taylor, he led a great awakening in China which continues on till this day.

At one point during his ministry, Hudson Taylor was deeply distressed by many burdens. As he prayed for strength to carry on, he came across Psalm 55:22 — “Cast your burden on the LORD, and He shall sustain thee.”

Suddenly this truth entered into his heart and he sprung to his feet and cried, “This fear-allaying truth has evaded me too long! I see it all now. If we are obeying the Lord and still run into difficulty, the heavy responsibility rests with HIM, not with us!” Then he prayed, “Lord, you shall all the burden! At your bidding I will go forward, leaving the results with You!”

With the burden lifted off his shoulder, Hudson Taylor went on to establish a great work in China.

Are you burdened today? Whatever your burden — cast it upon the Lord — and allow His peace to overflow your life! There is so much work to be done!

2 Corinthians 9:15 Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift.

I recently read a powerful story about a Dutch pastor and his family who had been hiding Jewish people in their home during the second World War. One night, they heard the sound of heavy boots and the loud impatient knocking on the door. They were arrested and loaded into a cattle car. All night long, the pastor and his family rode along in anguish, knowing they were being taken to one of Hitler’s concentration camps only to be separated from each other and likely killed.

Finally, the the train stopped. The doors of the cattle car were opened. They were marched out and lined up beside the railroad tracks. But then something very strange happened. They discovered that they were not in a death camp at all — they weren’t even in Germany!

During the night a courageous employee risked his life and purposely tripped a switch which sent the train of prisoners to Switzerland, to their freedom. Instead of being marched to death, they were welcomed to new life. Wow. Thank you God. In the midst of his joy and relief, the Dutch pastor said, “What do you do with such a gift?”

We have been given a gift of redemption much more powerful than this! And what are we doing with such a gift? Let’s start being about doing the work of the Kingdom! There’s so much work to be done!

Revelation 5:10 And hast made us unto our God kings and priests: and we shall reign on the earth.

Ever use that phrase on your kids? “Come on, will you grow up already?!”

As our little three year old explorer, Elianna, is becoming more agile and able to communicate her desires, she’s discovering more opportunities each day — climbing on the furniture, opening the refrigerator and asking for various items, reaching things she was never able to reach before, whew! She’s experiencing her new freedom and we’re experiencing major exhaustion! But we’ve noticed that with her new found freedom comes the desire to have even more freedom — and when something doesn’t go quite the way she wants when she wants it, uh - oh, look out. Screaming, crying the whole nine yards. We are trying to teach her that this kind of behavior is not acceptable but it seems that she won’t fully understand that concept until she “grows up” a bit.

One sign of maturity is the ability to delay gratification, or deny it completely. Wanting our way when we want it is childish behavior and doesn’t work with God’s plan for an anointed life! This may sound harsh, but I’m speaking to myself too!

There are no shortcuts to God. We cannot demand our way and our timing with Him. He has a perfect plan based upon His desires and His timing and if we want to go God’s way, we must comply! And not only that, the things of God take time too — developing a strong and anointed prayer life takes time a focused mind and spent with the Father, it doesn’t come overnight. Reading and understanding the Word and applying it to our lives, it takes time and much practice!

Let’s grow up today. God wants us to be a mature bride — one ready to rule with Him when He comes! There’s so much work to do!

Luke 12:15 And he said unto them, Take heed, and beware of covetousness: for a man’s life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth.

I heard this story recently.

Two shopkeepers were bitter rivals. Their stores were directly across the street from each other and they would spend each day keeping track of each other’s business. If one of them got a customer, he would smile in triumph at his rival.

One night an angel appeared to one of the shopkeepers in a dream and said, “I will give you anything you ask, but whatever you receive, your competitor will receive twice as much. Do you want to be rich? You can, but he will be twice as much. Do you wish to live a long and healthy life? You can, but his life will be longer and healthier. What is your desire?”

The man thought for a moment, and then said, “Please… blind me in one eye.”

I think we are often unaware of the deceptive way the enemy operates in this area of our lives. Is it easier for us to show sympathy when a person is hurting then to truly rejoice when they receive a blessing? That’s one surefire way to tell.

God wants us to be free of the bondages that hold us back from doing great things for Him, and many times we don’t even know they exist! Let’s examine our hearts today. Perhaps we need to do some repenting. There’s so much work to be done!