Set me free.
As the God man passes by
He looks straight through my eyes
The darkness cannot hide
Do you want to be free?
Lift your chains
I hold the key
All Power on Heaven and earth belong to me
"Set me Free" - Casting Crowns
Being set free is something everyone wants. Being set free in Christ is something worth striving for. Galatians 5 indicates that as Christians, we have been set from the law to please God. We're free from any frustration of not being able to keep up with certain rules. And that God has given us the Holy Spirit to help us function. But being free in Christ begins with your full faith in Jesus!
But in my distress I cried out to the Lord; yes, I cried to my God for help. He heard me from his sanctuary; my cry reached his ears.
2 Samuel 22:7
Being free requires us to cry out to God - just as the lyrics indicate, God asks us, "Do you want to be free..." Yeah he's leaving it up to us as to whether we want it or not. Crying out to God gives you freedom. It reminds me of Jesus telling his disciples in the parable of the persistent widow - to cry out to God when you need to!
One day Jesus told his disciples a story to show that they should always pray and never give up. “There was a judge in a certain city,” he said, “who neither feared God nor cared about people. A widow of that city came to him repeatedly, saying, ‘Give me justice in this dispute with my enemy.’ The judge ignored her for a while, but finally he said to himself, ‘I don’t fear God or care about people, but this woman is driving me crazy. I’m going to see that she gets justice, because she is wearing me out with her constant requests!’”
Then the Lord said, “Learn a lesson from this unjust judge. Even he rendered a just decision in the end. So don’t you think God will surely give justice to his chosen people who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? I tell you, he will grant justice to them quickly! But when the Son of Man returns, how many will he find on the earth who have faith?”
Luke 18: 1-8
Being free also requires us to confess. Two types of confession are talked about in the Word.
The first is (not necessarily the first in the Word, but the first I'll mention) is confessing that Christ is Lord! The message should always be close at hand, but more importantly ON your lips and IN your heart.
In fact, it says,“The message is very close at hand; it is on your lips and in your heart.” And that message is the very message about faith that we preach: If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is by believing in your heart that you are made right with God, and it is by confessing with your mouth that you are saved.
Romans 10:8-10
I think that an important part of the verse is that though the message just should be close to you, your lips and heart should ALWAYS be on guard for God. God is great! :-) He clarifies so much for us, thank you God for making your Word this available to us!
The second type of confession is confessing of our sins. We all sin. For all have sinned... We can't say we don't sin... but what we can do about it is - confess.
If we claim we have no sin, we are only fooling ourselves and not living in the truth. But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness. If we claim we have not sinned, we are calling God a liar and showing that his word has no place in our hearts.
1 John 1:8-10
What I really like about confession in God's word is that they're connected. By confessing our sins to God, it says he will be faithful and cleanse us from it. When this happens, it's just natural that we go out and confess the glory of God and profess how great he is! It's amazing how consistent God is!
Furthermore, we have seen with our own eyes and now testify that the Father sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. All who confess that Jesus is the Son of God have God living in them, and they live in God. We know how much God loves us, and we have put our trust in his love. God is love, and all who live in love live in God, and God lives in them.
1 John 4:14-16
Love is here, Love is now. God's moving like crazy in our towns, churches, communities, everywhere! God is love and simply asks us to commit our lives to him. Commit ourselves to love. Commitment is the third thing to do when desiring to be free in Christ. Proverbs asks us to commit ourselves to his instruction so that we may have wisdom. One thing about the Word that strikes my attention is that the word, "commit" is used soo often in the bible, but its used in the negative sense - committing adultery, murder, etc. God knows that we're more apt to commit these types of things so he keeps reminding us over 100 times to not commit these things. God's persistence on this makes me want to commit my life to him. He's so committed to our lives by trying to just remind us what not to commit. In 1 Timothy, it talks about what the leaders of the church should be like and I believe that although the following verse's context is about deacons, gives a command to all church leaders.
They must be committed to the mystery of the faith now revealed and must live with a clear conscience.
1 Timothy 3:9
God commands all of us to be set free from the pain of this world.
Cry out.
Confess God.
Confess Sins.
Commit to God not to the world.
Set me free, God, For only you have the key to my chains!
My chains are gone
I've been set free
My God, my Savior has ransomed me
And like a flood His mercy rains
Unending love, Amazing grace
"My Chains are gone" - Chris Tomlin