Freedom

"Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom." --2 Corinthians 3:17

Freedom...we value it so much. We are blessed to live in a country where we are free to say what we believe, worship in the way we believe and have all the many other freedoms that the United States gives us. But, unfortunately, even with all these freedoms, millions of people in our country are still in bondage...slaves to money...slaves to drugs...slaves to sexual practices...slaves to our selfish desires. Many of us are a long way from freedom.

The thing is, people are SEARCHING for that freedom and our culture grasps on to that search and instead of freeing us, enslaves us to something else. God placed a need for him in our hearts...most of us just don't recognize that feeling as being from God and we are constantly searching for something to fill the need.

I have been searching my whole life and I feel like I have finally found the pathway to freedom...the "THING" that needs to be filled in my heart IS filled when I reach out for God. I have made a lot of mistakes in my life. I have gone searching for love and acceptance in many places that ended up being the wrong places. I have been left feeling alone, empty and beaten. But I always seem to come back to God. His pull on my heart is strong and lifted me up out of that pit that my empty search left me in. I can be who I am. I am the soft-hearted, want to save the world, serious one minute, fun-loving goof ball the next person that I was created to be. God gives me that freedom.

I still have times when my heart goes searching again...searching for something that fills that NEED in my heart for MORE. There HAS to be MORE to this life! When my search takes me in a direction that God didn't want me to go (even if I thought it WAS the direction God wanted me to go) and I get lost...I feel those empty, alone, beaten-up feelings again. It is a lonely place to be. BUT...when I open my heart to God again...let go of my vain search and admit that I see God working in ways I didn't see before...I understand that God is pulling on my heart again...Pulling me back to him once again. It is then I get another taste of that freedom. It has happened to me again and again and has proved to me that God IS there and wants me near him!

If I, as a believer and child of God, have these lost feelings, how must it feel to have these feelings and NOT believe in a God who pulls me back to him? So many people think that believing in God puts you in chains because you can't to this and you can't do that...those 10 commandments and all those religious rules are too constricting! My heart breaks for those who don't know the love and the feelings of freedom that comes from knowing God. The me that wants to save the world wants to shout from the rooftops that GOD CAN MAKE YOU FREE!

But, since my husband would probably call the loony bin to come get me if I climbed up on top of my house and started shouting...I think I'll just keep writing my blog and telling people about my experiences with this freedom feeling inside me. Maybe someone will read this and want to feel that feeling too and will reach out to God themselves! I hope you feel God's love and freedom today!