\u201cSo if the Son sets you free, you really will be free.\u201d \u00a0John 8:36 CSB
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The movie \u201cShawshank Redemption\u201d could arguably be listed as a classic. The tale of two inmates that bond over years of imprisonment together. But there was one inmate, Brooks Hatlen that touched my heart for another reason. Incarcerated in 1905, he became the prison librarian in 1912 where he served until he was released on parole in 1955. He was a lifer, or so he thought, until he was released. Brooks didn\u2019t know what to do with his freedom. They put him in a halfway house, found him a job in a grocery store, all the things he would need to start a new life. But he didn\u2019t want a new life. He didn\u2019t want his freedom. He wanted to go back to jail where he was comfortable. Where he knew what to expect, knew what to do, knew how to live. He didn\u2019t know how to live free. In the saddest scene of the movie, Brooks kills himself in his lonely room of the halfway house. He didn\u2019t know how to live life free.
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It\u2019s sad to say, but many of us suffer the same problem as the fictional character Brooks. We don\u2019t know how to live free. We don\u2019t understand the freedom we have in Jesus. We don\u2019t truly believe we\u2019ve been forgiven all of our sins, even the ones we have yet to commit. Just because you begin a new life with Jesus doesn\u2019t mean you automatically stop sinning. In fact, Jesus knows we won\u2019t. Each morning, I start fresh. Above my desk I have this prayer hanging which I borrowed from C.S. Lews:
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\u201cImitation: Da hodie perfecte incipere<\/em>\u2013 grant me to make an unflawed beginning today, for I have done nothing yet.\u201d I live in freedom knowing that in my weakness, God is strong (2 Corinthians 12:7-10 CSB). \u00a0I will never be perfect, Christ didn\u2019t come because I was perfect. He came because I am a sinner who is in need of rescue (Galatians 1:4 CSB). \u00a0He did the same for you. But it can be hard to let go of the past and walk in confidence that Christ has set us free. The life we were living is known, the new life in Christ is unknown. \u00a0It\u2019s easier to stay where we were than to take steps of faith into the new life God is leading us too. It’s heartbreaking how abused women stay in abusive relationships because they don\u2019t know life without abuse. \u00a0It\u2019s seems safer to them than taking steps towards a new life. It\u2019s heartbreaking Brooks would rather die than live a life of freedom. But that is exactly what Jesus came to do, set us free. \u00a0He has set us free from our pasts, from our sins, from hurts and hang ups. \u00a0He came to give us life and give it to us in full (John 10:10 CSB). Accept the gift of freedom He has given you. \u00a0Don\u2019t go back to jail, step into freedom, step into life! \u201cSo if the Son sets you free, you really will be free.\u201d \u00a0John 8:36 CSB The movie \u201cShawshank Redemption\u201d could arguably be listed as a classic. The tale of two inmates that bond over years of imprisonment together. But there was one inmate, Brooks Hatlen that touched my heart for another reason. Incarcerated in 1905,… Continue reading GOD PROMISES FREEDOM THROUGH JESUS<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-759","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","without-featured-image"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/759","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=759"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/759\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":760,"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/759\/revisions\/760"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=759"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=759"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=759"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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