Denying yourself the True Freedom:

I am starting my third week in my devotional book on Hebrews in the Bible.  So far, this book has been incredibly insightful.  I was not aware of just how much the book of Hebrews pulled from the other books of the Bible to make their points and to showcase what they were trying to say.  

This chapter I am currently studying in Hebrews is all about how Jesus is better than Moses.  While Moses was a great prophet and a great leader for the Israelites, he was not perfect and he was not god.  Jesus and Moses experienced a similar situation because the people they were leading would find times they didn’t want to be led.  They would run away and they would be afraid for their lives and then create their own plans.  

For Moses, the Israelites were supposed to be going into the promised land, the land promised to them by God, a land flowing of milk and honey.  However, the Israelites were incredibly afraid of the people who were already living there who they were supposed to take the land from.  They didn’t trust God enough to get this promised land from these people.  Because of this, they were very delayed in getting their promised land.  The fear they had kept them away from the true freedom and lovely land they were originally promised.  

One quote from this devotional I really enjoyed was, “Though Israel longed for rest, their unbelief in the One who provides it hardened their hearts and prevented them from being able to experience the rest their bodies and souls craved.” (pg. 65).   I loved this quote.  It reminds me of how easily we as people can harden our hearts against God. We can then block ourselves away from the one who truly matters and can give us the rest and true desires of our hearts. 

There are many verses about finding freedom, true freedom in Christ.  One of them is Galatians 5:1 which says, “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.”  Here, Galatians is not talking about slavery in the traditional sense of what we think about when we think about slavery, but rather talking about the slavery to sin we have all experienced at one time or another.  This is the slavery to anxiety.  This is the slavery to fear.  This is slavery to the things of this world.  

I am often a person who is incredibly anxious, which I talk a lot about in this blog.  I often get anxious about work, about my relationships, the other groups and activities I am a part of, health, and various other stresses popping up from time to time.  I wish I could be a person who is restful and who doesn’t get overly stressed or anxious about any problems or situations arising.  However, I know I have a God I can turn to when these moments come around.  

The next day, the devotional continued into this thought about true rest.  This was saying, “Our superior savior invites us into a rest that is better than anything this world has to offer–a rest we can experience both now in the life to come. (pg. 68).  This is a reminder that we are not meant to be a part of this world forever.  We are not meant to be a part of the world or to bank on staying in this world.  We are meant to be a part of eternal life with Christ once we become a Christian and are saved through Him. 

The challenge for the week is to spend time resting in the Lord. This could be spending time reading the Bible, and learning about all what the Lord has to teach us in His Word.  This could be spending time in prayer and getting the chance to talk to the Lord and finding rest for your soul in that way.  It could be spending time talking to a trusted fellow brother and sister in Christ and asking them to be there for you as you struggle through these moments of anxiety or stress. I pray you can find true freedom.  The freedom only to be found in Christ, both for the while we are on this earth and in our eternity with God in heaven.