(Photo Credit: Dreamstime)
As believers we have the awesome opportunity to experience life to the fullest! We are able to enjoy a freedom like no other, freedom in Christ! Yet so many Christians find themselves bound to personal prisons. Proclaiming freedom to the world all the while held captive by something that has refused to allow them to enjoy their personal freedom, and for many this captivity is something so unassuming as the opinions of others.
Growing up in the church I was constantly given the list of rules to follow in being a “good Christian”. Rules became the measuring stick by which you could tell if someone was TRULY devoted to Christ. I remember one time questioning “Why?” Why can’t I do such and such? I wasn’t being rebellious in my heart, I was just curious. The answer offered no real definition other than “It’s what you’re supposed to do”. So as a “good Christian” it became important to me what others thought because OBVIOUSLY that’s what demonstrated my devotion. But can I tell you good works and outward appearance can be deceiving? They show an image of what is good but if the motive of the heart is wrong, the actions display a distorted view.
While I’m appreciative of the upbringing I’ve had inside the church walls, many times those walls closed in on me and I became enslaved by “church protocol” and shackled by how things should look. Maintaining the law of the written Word sometimes became more of a focus than loving on the LIVING Word Himself, Jesus.
I’m known for being a grace-giver to all of those around me but when it came to myself, I had run out. That’s the problem, I relied on my source instead of realizing that His grace is unending and never failing.
I had to do things a certain way with no exceptions, after all “What would people think?” There comes a point in your life when you should ask yourself “Why do I care so much about what people think?” This is not to say that we abandon our personal values and neglect the fact that we are to be examples, but there does come a time in one’s life when you have to evaluate the “whys” of what you do. We cannot become so consumed with the image of looking good, all the while letting life and true freedom pass us by, because we’re handcuffed to the opinions of others.
Decide today to end the addiction to men’s approval. Mankind did not create you and mankind cannot save you! There is a God in heaven that loves you more than life, literally. He spared nothing to prove His love for you yet we neglect this love many times for the temporal affection or applause from those who can do nothing for our eternal value.
Look around you… are you experiencing true freedom in Christ or do steel bars better known as approval addiction and man’s opinion coldly shelter your world? Do you make choices based on what you feel is best for your life and what God is leading you to do, or do your decisions weigh heavily based on the feedback of others?
Choose today to live life as God intended- FREE. Call a jailbreak and bust out of what’s holding you back, OTHERS!
