"For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. But now that you have been SET FREE from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord."
Romans 6:20-23
The world has sold this lie that being a
Christian means living by a set of "rules" - a long list of things
you can and can't do. When I was a teenager, I hated the rules. I hated being
told what I could and couldn't do. I just wanted to be like everyone else and
do whatever I wanted whenever I wanted.
I was 15 when I had my first drink of
alcohol, 16 when I got pregnant, 17 when I got kicked out of my house, 18 when I
first experimented with drugs, and 19 when I realized I was alcohol-dependent. My
choices as a teenager set my course for the next 10 years. I had all the “freedom”
in the world, but I was never more chained down.
When I came back to the Lord in my
mid-twenties (that’s a story for another day, if you ever want to hear it 😉), I
continued to struggle with my drinking. I told myself I had it under control, I
told myself it is not a sin to have a drink (after all, people in Bible times
drank alcohol, for goodness sake!), I told myself it wasn’t hurting anybody, I
told myself it wasn’t a problem if no one knew about it. I told myself lie
after lie to make myself feel better and avoid dealing with the real problem. God
is a jealous God and He has made it clear in His Word that we are not to have
another other god before Him. My alcohol dependency was my god, and I knew it. It
was more important to me than pretty much anything, certainly more important
than my relationship with God. I was stuck in a vicious cycle, battling my
wants with what I knew God wanted from me.
Thankfully, God didn’t leave me in my
bondage. He continued to work on my heart until I had a crazy idea: what if I
went a whole year without one drop of alcohol?! It was nearing the end of the
year, everyone makes new year’s resolutions, what if I decided to give God
everything and not have one drop of alcohol for one, whole year? I reasoned
with myself, “it’s only one year, if nothing changes I haven’t lost anything, I
can always go back to the same routine, no harm no foul.” So, I did it. I committed
to one year of no alcohol, completely sold out for Christ in every area of my
life.
What a year that was!! God broke me and
remade me, and in the process completely remade and restored my family. It was
the most difficult, but freeing year of my life, and at the end of that year, I
knew I could never go back to who and what I was. I spent 15 years of my life
chained down by alcohol and poor decisions, living under the pretense of “freedom.”
My “freedom” almost destroyed me and almost destroyed my family. I can tell you
without a doubt that there is no freedom like the freedom I found when I gave every
area of my life over to Christ. I was no longer in bondage to who I was, I was
a new person. I’ll love the Lord forever for saving me, for saving my family,
and for setting me free.
If your story sounds a bit like mine,
take heart, God’s not finished with you yet. Hold onto the promise of Isaiah 43
– “Behold, I will do a new thing; now it shall spring forth; shall ye not know
it? I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert.” He
makes all things new, and that includes you too.
If you have something that you are
holding onto, something that is standing in the way of your deepening relationship
with your heavenly Father, I urge you to make a commitment today to give it up.
For me, it was alcohol. It might be something different for you, but you know
deep in your heart that God will never have complete control of your life until
you let it go. Let me encourage you by saying that the freedom you will find by
being completely surrendered to Christ is far better than that thing you think
you can’t give up.
The world tells us that being a
Christian means living by rules. In reality the complete opposite is true. When
I think of the bondage I lived in for so many years, my heart breaks. I was so
lost, so chained down, so broken, and I didn’t even know it until Christ set me
free. True freedom can only be found in Christ.
❤
I love using the ESV Scripture Journals because of all the blank space to write notes, paint, and journal! This page has a lot of meaning to me, but it was fun and easy to do. For real! I just used distress oxides and the Freedom in Christ, Texture Tiles 1, and Typewriter Text Background stamp sets to create this page. See my step-by-step process below. 😊
I hope and pray that my story encourages you in your walk with Christ. He never meant for us to live in bondage, He meant for us to live free in Him. Surrender to Him today and know what it's like to be FREE.
(This is me and my handsome family. My high school sweetheart with whom, by the grace of God, I've been in love with for 19+ years; my 17 year old son, Alex; my 15 year old son, Tyler; and my 10 year old adoptive son, Dakota. Isn't God good?)
Much love in Christ,
Janelle
Hop on over to the Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps shop to see this month's new releases as well as the other stamps I used for this page 😊:
No comments:
Post a Comment