Freedom to Be

As the Christmas season has come around once again this year, I am reminded so very well of why Jesus came. The Bible talks about how Jesus was one time looking at the people around Him and He had compassion on them because He saw that they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. That's kind of how I am feeling this Christmas season, harassed and helpless.

Sometimes as a Christian I think that I need to have it all together, have it all under control, and be doing everything right all of the time. The reality though is that I don't get it right all of the time, and this is hard for me to accept, but the reality is that Jesus knows that I won't, and He doesn't expect me to. That's why He came to die. Even as a Christian I sometimes think that I need to get everything right though, that I don't have the freedom to make a mistake; that's no way to live. By living that way though I once again put myself under the judgment of the law instead of under the grace and mercy of Jesus. Jesus came to set me free from the mentality, the belief, the need, to do everything right. As a Christian I have the freedom to mess up and be broken because Jesus is the one that makes me different. As I live my life with Him He is the one who changes my heart. As I abide in Jesus, by walking by the Spirit in obedience to Him, the Father comes and cuts away all of the things that He no longer wants to be there. There is a lot of freedom in that. He takes care of the things that are bad and makes me into the person that He has given me the desire to be, which is like Him.

This means though that I have to give control of my life to Him, and sometimes that is hard to do, especially when He is asking me to do something that I have never really done before. It makes me want to run away from what He is trying to do even though I know that what He wants to do will be good for me. We're like that though. We're control freaks. Through it I am learning to trust Him and others better as He asks me to follow Him through this season of life into something great and wonderful that He has planned for me, even though right now it sees kind of dark and dreary. That's the beauty of the Christmas story though. Jesus came into the darkness and shone Himself to be bright and to make a way for us to follow Him into a a good and abundant life with God.

Whatever your feeling this Christmas season, I hope that you will find Jesus to be everything that you need. I am being reminded that Jesus knows I am harassed and helpless; so He offers to be my shepherd and to lead me out of this place into a good place that He has planned for me. Even though it is kind of difficult to follow Him down the trail He is leading me on I know that I can trust in Him and He will bring me to a a new place of wholeness and healing in my life if I will follow Him the whole way through.

He is the King of Kings, who came as a baby and died on the cross, may we praise Him as such this Christmas season.