You Were Made For Freedom

God has a plan to free you from everything that’s holding you back.

No matter how deflated, discouraged or defeated you may feel
today, take hope in this: You were made for freedom.

The world is full of people and problems that can make us feel anything but free. They pin us down, tie us up and hold us back from living the lives we’ve always dreamed of. But the issues and challenges that stand in our way don’t have to define us. Because no matter how big they are, God is bigger. And He made you to be free.

The dreams in your heart are evidence of God’s designs and purposes for you. tweet this!

Many of us know intuitively that there is more to life than what we’re living now. The discrepancy between the things we dream in our hearts and the realities of situations can be a huge source of frustration and sadness. But if you learn to see things differently, they can also be a source of hope. Because those big dreams in your heart are evidence of God’s designs and purposes for you. We dream about being free because that’s what we were made for. And the God who created you for freedom has a plan to set you free.

Freedom Lost

Like the fish who doesn’t realize he’s living in an aquarium,
many of us don’t realize we’re living in slavery. We’re so accustomed to the
brokenness of the world — things like financial trouble, rocky marriages, toxic
relationships, failing institutions and widespread injustice — that we have
begun to think of these things as normal. But they’re not normal. They’re not
the way God created us to live. And they’re not His plan for you.

God created man to be completely free: free from sickness, free from shame, free from abuse and fear and self-doubt. But when we chose sin and selfishness instead of God’s ways, we opened the door to slavery. We became captives of sin, and the evil we brought into our lives began to rewrite our story.

We’re so accustomed to the brokenness of the world that we have begun to think of it as normal. But that's not the way God created us to live. And it's not His plan for you. tweet this!

That evil became so pervasive that we almost lost our hope. But God didn’t. He made us for freedom, and He had a plan for us to live in freedom once again.

Jesus was God’s freedom plan. He came to earth to show us what freedom looks like. Then He died in our place so that we could have it for ourselves.

Freedom Found

Because of what Jesus did for us on the cross, we’re free from the eternal consequences of our sin. But He didn’t just purchase our eternity. He came to set us free from the things that hold us back in this life, too.

No matter what you’re struggling with, God wants to set you free. And He can set you free. In fact, the work of freedom has already been done. All you have to do is begin living in what He already bought for you.

When you’re struggling with a problem, it’s tempting to think you can solve it by changing your circumstances. If you’re having financial trouble, you may think financial freedom will come when you make a big sale, get a better job or build a more successful business. And while those are all good things, none of them will set you free. Because it’s not a problem in your circumstances that holds you back from freedom. It’s a problem in your heart.

God wants to set you free. And He can set you free. The work of freedom has already been done. tweet this!

Financial issues, like all our other problems, are heart issues. No matter how good your circumstances may be, if your heart isn’t free, you won’t experience the joy of the freedom you were made for.

Freedom Starts in Your Heart

If you want to find freedom from the things that bother you most,
start by looking at what’s going on in your own heart.

Consider what Jesus said about financial freedom in Matthew 6:24:

“No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.”

Financial slavery doesn’t come from not having enough money.
It comes from having an improper relationship with money. You can have all the money in the world and still not experience financial freedom. Because freedom isn’t about what you have. It’s about who you serve.

If you set your heart to serving God, He’s going to teach you to handle your money differently. He’s going to teach you to put needs over wants. He’s going to teach you to be a generous giver. He’s going to teach you to sacrifice now so that you can have a secure future later.

Freedom isn’t about what you have. It’s about who you serve. tweet this!

Some of the things God says about saving money may not sound like very freeing. In fact, they may sound restrictive. But if you surrender that area of your heart to Him and start following what He says, you’ll discover that the freedom you gain is much greater than the autonomy you’re giving up. You’ll find freedom from debt, from fear and from worrying about the future. And you’ll start to give freely too, making an impact in the world where it matters most to you.

No matter what you’re up against, freedom starts in your heart. Focus your heart on God’s plan and you’ll discover the freedom you were made for.