Last week, I published an article titled Celebrating
Our Freedom. In this article, I shared the fundamentals of the freedom we
can find in Jesus. When we hear the word freedom, most of us probably paint a
picture of being set free from a tyrannical government or leader. But this is
far from the picture the Bible paints for us about the freedom offered in
Jesus.
What does it really look like for Jesus to set us free? And
how does it impact our daily lives? These are the questions I seek to answer in
this article by providing a few practical examples from my own life which
demonstrate the ways in which Jesus has set me free. If there’s one thing I’ve
learned since God began setting me free from sin,[1]
it’s that this freedom is something which permeates every area of my life. My
entire outlook on life, the things I strive after, and the things I think about
throughout the day have completely changed.
As I share a few of the ways in which my life has been
changed by Jesus, know that these are only a few specific examples which have
taken place in my life and that they aren’t the only changes I’ve experienced,
nor are they the only changes other people have experienced. The reason I’ve
decided to share these specific examples is because I think they will be
relatable for many of you reading this article.
Jesus Set Me Free from Shame
Shame is one of the most under-discussed and
under-researched topics in the world. It’s an incredibly hard subject to talk
about because of the pain it stirs up. Nonetheless, I’m going to spend a little
time discussing shame because of the stronghold it once had on me and because
of the stronghold it probably has on many of you.
Based on the research of Dr. Brené Brown, often recognized as
the leading researcher in the area of shame, shame is defined as “The fear of
disconnection.” To say it another way, shame is the fear of rejection. All of
us have struggled with this fear at some point in our lives and may still be
struggling with it today. We so desperately want to be accepted.
As I look back on the few childhood memories stored in the
archives of my brain, most of them are somehow connected to the shame I felt in
the midst of those experiences. Throughout grade-school, I was often picked on
by my classmates which led me to feel rejected by them. For example, I can
remember wearing a sleeveless shirt to school one day and one of my classmates made
fun of me because my arms were so skinny. I felt that I was being rejected because
of my skinny arms which then led me to feel shame.
A few weeks later on the last day of school, we were all
ushered into the cafeteria where awards were presented to students who excelled
in various areas such as being on the honor roll, getting straight A’s, and
having perfect attendance. When the teachers presented the awards to the
students, everyone in the room applauded for them. To my young mind, it
appeared like these high-performing students received acceptance because of
their accomplishments. At that moment, I decided to set out to win every school
award imaginable in order to receive the same acceptance. By the time I
finished 5th grade, I was earning every single one of those awards
every single year. I got to stand up in front of every student in the entire
school to accept my award and receive their solidary commendation.
It didn’t take long for this same mentality to carry over
into everything I did. I strove to win every award imaginable so that I could
experience what I felt was a sign of acceptance. Whatever I did, whether it was
school work, sports, choir, or musicals, I quickly climbed to the top of the
ladder and won nearly every award. And every time I walked up to the front of
the room to receive my award, I soaked up the applause I received from all my
classmates.
Unfortunately, awards are only handed out once a year. And
although I found myself feeling accepted when I received awards, I still felt
rejected and therefore lots of shame throughout the rest of the year. No matter
how hard I tried or how many awards I received, I was never able to part with
the daily shame I experienced. The constant shame I felt continued until Jesus
became the King of my life. When this transition began to take place,
everything began to change.
Jesus is God. Why is this important? Because that makes him
the most important being in the entire world. God created and continues to
sustain the universe. And he created every single person on earth. He’s kind of
a big deal.
When I put myself and everyone else on earth up against God,
I realize we all pale in comparison to him. In the grand scheme of things,
we’re worthless compared to God. We’re just a bunch of messed up peons who are
enslaved to sin. God has no reason to give us the time of day. Yet, God loves
me so much that he humbled himself to become a human being who lived in this
sinful world and died a death he didn’t deserve so that I could be set free
from my captivity to sin.[2]
This is the greatest act of acceptance anyone could ever demonstrate. The fact
that I did absolutely nothing to earn it, yet he gave it to me freely,
demonstrates the genuineness of it.
Jesus has set me free from the fear of rejection and the shame
that comes with it![3]
Jesus Is Setting Me Free from My Addictions
Another freedom I’ve experienced in Jesus is being set free
from addiction. Although I’ve never been addicted to some of the biggest
culturally taboo addictions such as drugs, gambling, or pornography, I’ve been
addicted to a number of other things including wealth, video games, and
perfection.
Although I don’t have a doctorate in psychology, in my
experiences dealing with personal addictions and in walking alongside others
who have struggled with addictions, I’ve concluded that addictions, regardless
pf type, are extremely similar in that every single one of them is completely
enslaving. Anything can become an addiction. We can be addicted to work, sports,
gossip, politics, sex, eating, cleaning, and even coupon clipping. It doesn’t
take a chemical injection in order for something to become addicting.
The way all addictions start is by trying something for the
first time. Maybe you got to play a video game at a friend’s house, try a new sport,
or take a shot of heroin. As you tried those things for the first time, you
realized that they felt pretty good. So you naturally decided to go back to
them again and again and again. Before you know it, you find that your mind is
constantly consumed with dreaming about the future experiences you’ll have with
the object of your addiction. You’ll be counting down the minutes until you’ll be
able to have it again. And you get to the place where you feel like you need to have it in order to be happy.
This is what I mean by it being enslaving. The addiction ends up controlling
you.
One of my addictions for many years was wealth. I’d often
find my mind completely consumed with dreaming about becoming one of the
wealthiest people in the world. When I had opportunities to earn some money,
I’d save nearly every penny of it. By late elementary school, I had saved up
enough to open my first Certificate of Deposit. In seventh grade, I saved up
another pot of money which I invested in my first mutual fund. A year later, I
saved up another pot of money and opened my first Roth IRA. I few years later,
I did lots of research on stocks and began buying and selling individual stocks.
Money wasn’t the only part of wealth to which I was
addicted. I was also addicted to the stuff I bought with my money. When I spent
money on things, which was very rare, I was very selective about how I used it
and was very protective of the things I bought. Although I dropped hundreds of
dollars on Ty beanie babies, I did it as an investment because I was convinced
they were going to increase in value over time. You guessed it: I never cut off
their shiny, red, unbent tags because they were sure to decrease in value if I
did that. When other people would ask to borrow my stuff, I’d say “No” because
my experience had shown that they didn’t take as good of care of it as I did.
When Amy and I got married and were both working full-time
jobs, I initially won the battle on how much money we spent. Basically, we only
spent money on the necessities and didn’t splurge on anything. We had a tight,
rigorous budget which I set for us and forced her to comply. I regularly got
upset with her because she’d spend money going out to eat for lunch everyday
rather than packing her lunch. During this time period, we filled our coffers
with so much money that everyone was in awe of how much money we had.
Due to my love of wealth, I spent my childhood living in
constant fear that either someone was going to break into our house and steal
all my prized possessions or that our house was going to catch on fire. I regularly
had nightmares about one or both of these events occurring. This same fear
carried over into my adult life. When Amy and I bought a house, I invested in a
top-notch security system to protect all my valuable stuff.
I did all these things because of my addiction to wealth. I
was absolutely terrified of losing it because of the dependency I had on it. It
was so enslaving that it caused unnecessary friction between Amy and me.
But Jesus decided to set me free from my addiction. He
didn’t use a self-induced 12-step program for addiction recovery. He also
didn’t teach me how to build up a better resistance to it. Rather, he replaced my
desire for it with a desire for something so much more valuable than all the
wealth in the entire world put together; he replaced it with a desire for him.
He showed me, not just told me, how much more valuable he is than all the
wealth in the world. He can satisfy me in a way that all the wealth in the
world could never do. As a result, I’m no longer a slave to wealth and I no
longer have a fear of losing my wealth. If a fire consumes it all or if a
burglar breaks in and steals it all, so what? I trust that God is still going
to take care of me.
In a similar way that Jesus broke my addiction to wealth, he
has broken some of my other addictions and is in the process of breaking some
other extremely stubborn addictions. Jesus is setting me free from my
addictions!
Jesus Set Me Free from My Fear of Death
The number one fear I think most humans have is the fear of
death. Even though I’ve always been a professing Christian, I still feared
death. I feared everything about it from the act of dying to the unknown of
what was going to happen after I died. I think every single one of us can
relate to this one.
Can you even begin to list out the amount of time you spend
planning and implementing preventative measures to ensure that you stay alive?
I’m not suggesting that we stop wearing our seatbelts or attempt to walk across
four lanes of traffic when the sign says “Don’t Walk,” but I am suggesting that
we usually spend way too long and way too much money trying to keep ourselves
alive. With all the latest technology in the medical field, we spend thousands
of dollars to put loved ones on machines in order to keep them alive for a
couple more days. We’ll go to virtually any and all lengths to keep ourselves
from dying.
Similar to the other topics I’ve discussed in this article,
the fear of dying can be enslaving. It can completely control our lives. Some
people install five locks on every door, have an armed gun by them at all
times, and almost never leave the house out of this fear. The person who does
decide to break into that house isn’t going to fare well.
If you don’t believe in an afterlife or you believe that you
won’t receive an afterlife of reward, then you have every reason to fear dying.
Things don’t look very good for you. But for those who believe they have
received life in Jesus, we have no reason whatsoever to fear dying. Jesus promised
that all those who belong to him will inherit eternal life with him. Yet, some
of us still struggle with this fear. I believe the reason we struggle with it
is because we (1) don’t yet have a kingdom mentality, (2) don’t believe Jesus
is really in control of our lives, and (3) don’t actually trust that Jesus has
the power to do what’s best for his kingdom. We could try to brainwash
ourselves into believing these three things, but it’s not going to change the
way we operate unless it becomes a deep conviction that he places on our
hearts.
Personally, I’ve experienced this change in my heart. I can
remember the fear I experienced a few years ago when the thought crossed my
mind that a terrorist could attack any public place at any time. But when that
thought crosses my mind now, I no longer experience the fear of dying. When the
realization hits me that I could get in a car accident and lose my life, I no
longer experience fear. When I get on a roller coaster and feel like going over
a hill the wrong way could cause me to fly out of my seat and die, I no longer
experience fear. Why? Because he’s set me free from that fear. I can wake up
every morning without the fear of dying that day. As long as I am here on
earth, I will live for him. And the day he decides it’s time for me to be with
him will be the best day of my life; I’ll finally get to see Jesus face to
face.
Jesus has set me free from the fear of dying!
Do You Want to Be Set Free?
As can be seen from my life, I can personally attest to the fact
that there is freedom found in Jesus. It’s a freedom that can’t be gained
anywhere else. Not even the best mind games can get you there. You can try to
talk yourself out of your fears, but they don’t magically go away. They may be
masked for a while, but will inevitably resurface. I know because I’ve tried
these tactics. They don’t work. It’s something which Jesus has to do.
Although you can’t earn this freedom, if you want Jesus to
set you free, ask him every single day to do it. And ask him for the
opportunity to catch a glimpse of the results. Additionally, I’d strongly
encourage you to read the Bible because it paints a much more comprehensive
picture than I can write in a couple short articles about what this freedom
looks like. It shows you the character of God. It shows you how to follow him
with everything you are. And it shows you the results you should expect to see
as you experience the freeing work he’s doing in your life.
If you’d like to discuss this topic more, feel free to reach
out to me via phone, email, social media, etc.
–
Can you relate with some of the ways in which I’ve been set
free by Jesus? From what has he set you free? From what do you want to be set
free?
[1] As
a clarification, I’m not claiming that I no longer a sinner. I’m a sinner every
single day. But sin no longer runs my life. Jesus does!
[2]
See John 3:16 and Philippians 2:5-9.
[3]
This isn’t to say that I no longer struggle with pleasing other people, but I’m
no longer a slave to it like I was previously.
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