How do you Stand Fast in your Freedom?

This post is dedicated to honor a very important anniversary today, the day God answered my quiet, unsure plea for deliverance.

On the wall, over my fireplace mantel, is the verse Galatians 5:1: "Stand fast therefore in the liberty with which Christ has made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage."

This verse captures everything that I have gone through in a year of recovery and restoration. 

Stand Fast is to prevail against, to hold one's ground, to remain firm. There are actions to standing firm. It's not just an idea or thought. It's is affirmative action! So how do you Stand Firm? 

In Christ. That is all. 

It is nothing you personally do to try and change yourself, change habits or whatever self-help book you read. If you are not absorbing God's Word into the marrow of your bones you will never understand what it is to Stand Firm in your freedom in Christ. Everyday immersion in the Word, deliberate and with the purpose of letting Christ sanctify you through and through is the only way. Let Him have access to every thought, every action and even to transform your wayward emotions.

Did you know that after a word search for synonyms of Liberty I found "birthright"? Oh do I feel that to my core!! My birthright through Christ makes Liberty an inherited promise, a right, a privilege, and a fact! When Christ went to the cross and cried "It is Finished!" to bring my ravaged soul salvation, He provided this birthright so that when I became a born again believer I could live everyday in that freedom! It's right there, in front of us. We have to want it and choose it for it to become a reality in everyday life.

To be entangled is to be in a trap, a snare, a sticky web, to be muddled, puzzled and confused. Second Corinthians 11:14 tells us that Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light. No wonder why we get confused! Do you know how we can avoid being entangled in a sticky, confusing web? To know the Word of God so thoroughly that you can spot the difference between darkness cloaked in a mask of pretend light to the awe-inspiring, majestic and breath taking Truth of Jesus Christ. There is no substitute and there is no other version.

A yoke of bondage is slavery. The Miriam Webster dictionary says it is "an arched device formerly laid on the neck of a defeated person." A slavery we choose. We walk right into it, sometimes without even a question or a pause, just head long running into the yoke of bondage. Shackles and chains that we put on ourselves and allow Satan to turn the lock. We are befuddled and confused in an entangled web of deception. Satan weaves lies so crafty and containing tiny portions of half truths and self gratifying feelings that we hardly realize we've fallen into a pit. 

Someone needs to hear this loud and clear today: 

You are Free in Christ! 

Satan has no rights over you, he doesn't own you, he can't keep you against your will! You are God's child, His possession. You remain in bondage because you are allowing Satan power over you. God is bigger and stronger than anything you've done. His death on the cross was all sufficient and completely covering of all your sins. It is an event that happened in the past tense that provides a present day overcoming power and is the unobjectionable perfect provision for your daily freedom! You have the right, in Christ, to say to your yoke of bondage, NO Longer!

I imagine in my head that when my tiny, timid, unsure plea for deliverance reached heavens ears, Jesus said "Well for goodness sake girl...it's about time! I've been longing to give you what I have stored up for you, I just needed you to actually want it!"

That unsure, timid girl has been growing in knowledge and Truth. For years, I have known God's Word. It was in me, in my head...not my heart. It has been as though God plucked me out of the pit and placed me in seclusion for the one purpose of doing the hard work of restoring my wrecked soul. In doing so, my faith has grown strong, my belief of who I am in Christ has emboldened me to speak it out, and I even had a friend recently tell me she thinks of me as a fierce warrior. Oh, that God would make me into more than twice the foe of hell I ever thought I could be!

Praise you Lord Jesus for the complete redemption and restoration that only You can do!!