Church

July 8, 2012

This morning I got up and went to church. Instead of our regular preacher doing the sermon today, we had one of the church's former preachers giving the sermon.

Have you ever gone to church after having a really rough week and found that the preacher was preaching right to your situation? That happened today.

The sermon was about freedom and slavery. When we think about freedom, we like to think that we have more freedom when nobody is able to tell us what to do. In America, we feel that we have rights and none of us would consider ourselves slaves. This sermon challenged that view by pointing out that we are all born into slavery. Slavery is NOT an option. We are either slaves to our own desires, sins, and fears OR we are slaves to God. When we become slaves to our own desires, sins, and fears, we actually lose freedom. We come under the spirit of slavery which produces fear and anxiety in our lives. When we choose to proclaim God as our Master, we are choosing real freedom even though we are submitting to His will for our lives.

This point can be further proven by thinking of ourselves as children. In the Bible, many times you will hear the scriptures telling us that we need to become childlike. It tells us we are the children of God. When we are children, our parents make all of our decisions for us. We have no rights, we trust our parents, and we don't have to fear anything because our parents have all the responsibility. When we try to be "adults" and don't allow God to be our Father and our provider, we take on fears and anxiety and burdens that we were never meant to carry.

This message hit home with me today. All week I've chosen to be a slave to my fears and anxieties and burdens about this pregnancy. All of those feelings are a demonic spirit of slavery and I don't have the right to feel those feelings. I must trust in my heavenly Father to provide for me. He wants me to be happy and healthy. I must choose to forfeit my "rights" and become a child so that my Father can guide me and lead me on the path He wants me to go. I have no reason to worry. He has all the responsibility. I just have to wake up and eat the breakfast that He has already prepared for me-just like a child in his parent's home!