Freedom

 Freedom means something different to every person. For some people, it is freedom from an unhealthy relationship that they have tried to get out of for so long. Freedom for some is being healed and set free from addiction, pain, or whatever else the enemy may have been trying to take them down with. For me, freedom is everything. Freedom is peace, literal freedom from prison, freedom is being able to live my life as I please. But, what I have realized is that when I try to live my life as I please I don’t find freedom. It is only when  I walk in faith and ask God to walk it with me, that is when I feel true freedom.

I have learned, quickly, that when I try to do things my way and not ask God what He has for me or what it is that He wants me to do. Things never work out well! And then I get in the moments where I feel like my life is just so much harder than everyone else’s and nothing can go right for me. But when I sit back and really think about that… my life gets hard when Christ is not in the center of it. When I try to live by my own strength is when I feel the weakest. When I don’t allow God to choose my path and walk it out with me, that is when I have my greatest downfalls.

On the other hand, when I allow God to walk my life out WITH me, I see my greatest breakthroughs, I see blessings beyond measure, and I feel a peace and freedom like I never thought possible. So why can’t I do this all the time? I ask myself if it’s so good, why don’t I do it all the time? Well, because I am human and I am not perfect, Satan is trying his hardest to bring me down if I try to do things in my flesh that is when I give Satan an open door to come and try and mess up my whole life!

Everybody makes mistakes and nobody is perfect God knows this he knew that when he created us. God never expects us to be perfect. God expects us to try our hardest and when we mess up ask him for forgiveness. And then… Move on. Our mistakes are not our burden. God frees us of our sins every time we ask for forgiveness when we lay our sins. At His Feet they are gone He does not remember them so why do we feel like we have to remember them?

 God doesn’t remind us of things that we’ve done in the past, that is Satan. That is Satan’s lying, deceiving, tormenting ways of making us feel like we are failures and we are in a physical and mental prison when we don’t have to feel that way. I have made some really horrible mistakes in my life, I knew what I was doing when I did them. I sat 6 years in prison I got out and restored my relationship with God and with my family; I decided that I was going to take the most challenging step into making a legal living for myself. I’d love to say I did it, but I have not done it. God did it.

God doesn’t every day remind me of things that I’ve done or something that I’ve seen. When I ask God to forgive me for robberies and selling drugs and selling myself he forgave me. All he wants is for us to be better than we were yesterday. For us not to hold on to the past like it’s the present. If you hold onto the past there is no way that you can move forward in the future. If you’re living in the past and your future seems so far away from you, it's because you haven’t given God the opportunity and the space in your life and in your mind to show you what he has for you.

I will encourage you to really get before God and ask Him to show what it is that He has for you! It may not be immediate, it may not be a super clear answer. But, keep asking, and KEEP LISTENING!!! Sometimes God wants to talk to us at the least expected times in the least expected ways. Just keep asking.