Thursday 5th February - What freedom means

DAILY BYTE

So the truth of Jesus sets us free from the many lies we live under. However, sometimes we don’t full appreciate what this freedom actually means for us. A man once visited a small country town fair. As he was walking around, he noticed a group of quails that had been trained to walk around a pole. Each quail was attached to the pole by a small chain, and they spent all day just walking around and around the pole.

Being tender-hearted, he offered to buy all the quails from their owner. The owner refused because he was making good money off the ‘entertainment’ the quails provided. However, the man made a decent offer which the owner eventually accepted. Excitedly, the man released each quail from their chains and started shooing’ them off. ‘You’re free,’ he said, ‘fly away’. After confusedly looking around, the quails just put their heads down and once again began their never-ending circular walk.

Although they had been set free from their chains, they did not realise the implications of that freedom and so continued in their drudgery.

Unfortunately, this story can be applied to many of us. We are set free by Jesus, but we don’t realise the full implications of what that means. The chains are no longer holding us, the power of our sin has been broken, but nevertheless we keep going around in the same old circles.

One of the ways we do this is by allowing Jesus to set us free, but then simply moving off into a different type of slavery or addiction. We merely transfer our dependence to a different type of sin or addiction.

One very common example of this is in what can be called ‘Do-it-yourself’ or ‘DIY’ religion. Our immediate reaction to the Good News of our freedom is to want to earn it, or to prove we deserve it. Like the man who went to a DIY shop to buy himself a hand-saw to cut down some trees. The salesman convinced him to buy a chainsaw instead, saying that it would make the job a lot quicker. The next day, the man returned to the shop complaining that using the chainsaw actually made the job take twice as long. The salesman took the chainsaw out into the backyard, and started it up. The man looked startled and said to the salesman: ‘Hey, what’s that noise’?

If we try to earn or deserve God’s gift of freedom, then we are like that man who tried to manually cut his trees down with a chainsaw. We are expending a huge amount of effort that will be totally wasted. The man didn’t realise the full power of the chainsaw, and similarly, we don’t realise the full power of God who offers to empower us to live life in his name.

In fact, if we go down the path of DIY religion, we will only lead ourselves once again into slavery and darkness. Our faith will end up becoming nothing more than another vice, something which holds and imprisons us. The kind of faith that God gives brings us into freedom and not more drudgery. We don’t go to church, read our bibles, pray, or follow these devotions to earn God’s approval. That has already been given to us. We do them because we are set free to do them! We do them because that’s what a relationship of love is all about! We do them, because we love God and want to do so – not because we are afraid of God and have to do so. As today’s reading says, we are not given a spirit of fear, but one of love. Is this true for you?

PRAY AS YOU GO

Father God, thank-you that our freedom is gifted to us and cannot be earned. Help us to never go down the rather rocky paths of trying to earn or deserve it. Help us to truly be free in every way! Help us to live in a loving relationship with you, and not one of fear. Amen.

FOCUS READING

Romans 8:12-17 (MSG)

So don't you see that we don't owe this old do-it-yourself life one red cent. There's nothing in it for us, nothing at all. The best thing to do is give it a decent burial and get on with your new life. God's Spirit beckons. There are things to do and places to go!