‘O Come, O Come Emmanuel’ heralds what Jesus came to do, to set us free!
How often we forget or even take for-granted the freedom Jesus has given us. The freedom to be free of guilt and shame. To know his peace, his joy, his grace and his love without bounds. Jesus came to set us FREE!
So let’s rejoice! Jump, dance, sing, declare who Jesus is and what he’s done for us all!
giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. –Colossians 1:12-14
I thank God for what he has done in my life. His sacrifice gave me the opportunity to start over, to build a new life, free from shame and guilt from my past mistakes.
That’s what Jesus did when he came to earth. He lived life as a servant and sacrificed his life for us. He never gave in to temptation but gave his life over willingly to take our place. We are that valuable to him that he gave everything for us, every moment of everyday of his life, even unto a death he didn’t deserve so that he could deliver us from darkness.
See it doesn’t matter what you’ve done, because Jesus forgives you. Don’t worry about thinking you have to clean up your act or change before you come to God. You come to him just as you are so that his sacrifice and his forgiveness can free you from guilt and shame and give you new life.
Why do we keep trying the same temporary fixes to fill the holes inside us and expect different results?
We all have times when we want to escape, from work, school, home, kids spouse. Everyone needs a break sometime.
But is what we run to really helping? Or is it just a temporary fix, like putting tape on a busted pipe it may work for a moment but eventually the pipe is going to burst again, and if we keep using tape it’s never going to solve the issue.
The lyrics of the song Chain Breaker by Zach Williams describes the cycle we go through in life so often searching for the solution but never finding the answer in the same process.
But there is a better way, a better life.
God is a chain breaker he made a way for us to be free to not feel tied down but to find joy and peace in our homes, in our work and in our families.
He is the way.
When we go to him, when we need rest, he lifts us up, he takes our fears our worries and our frustrations when we give them over to him.
If we grip onto the chains that our strangling us he can’t remove them. We have to surrender them over to him so he can remove them.
