I am free… and so are you!

Did you know that the moment that we make the choice to put our life in Jesus’ hands, we are free forever? We are free from our sins – we no longer live as prisoners to the things of this world.

If the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. (John 8:36)

I think so often we forget such a simple concept and try to complicate things. If you are in Christ, you are a new creation and You are free. Bottom line. The moment you decide to trust Jesus, He sets you free – free from past decisions, present mistakes, and even future ones too. I am free from the things of this world. I no longer live prisoner to all the things that I did before Christ chose to save me.

I struggled a lot with whether or not to write about this because who really wants to confess all the “junk” about themselves, but I think that so many people just need to hear it! I am hoping that I can remind you of the Truth that the Lord has so reminded me of, especially the past few days.

The Word tells us we are free, and if we BELIEVE that, I just want to know... WHY do we still live like prisoners so often? It’s like we just build a tent and camp out there, tied up to _______. Fill in the blank! For me that blank contained words like this: money, sex, power, success, image, alcohol, vanity, and the list just goes on. For you, it may look a little differently. Whatever fills that blank, it is sin. Sin that we do NOT have to gratify.

So here it is. I lived a life that chased and chased THINGS and yet could never find fulfillment. I was a slave to things like 600-dollar shoes, dreams of range rovers, long nights out, image...really anything that I could to suit me for that particular moment. No longer do I live in shame of these things, but I talk about them openly and victoriously! Why? Because I am FREE from them. They no longer hold me in captivity.

While extravagant clothes and crazy nights out seem to be very specific examples, it wasn’t really them that were the issue. It was just the things that the sin of my heart manifested itself through. My whole life was my image, my longing for fulfillment because I wasn’t depending on the Father to be satisfied with myself. As the Lord started to strip these particular things away, my strive for the perfect image just manifested it in something else in my life. That is the funny thing, isn’t it? Satan will lie to you in WHATEVER way or time of your life seems fit, even if the lies are completely contradictory to one another. In college, the lies sounded a whole lot like this:

“You are worth SO much. You deserve all this stuff – fancy cars, fancy clothes, fancy life….”

As those things began to fall away, the lies went from THAT to THIS:

“You aren’t worth enough! You need to do better. ”

And so that’s what I tried to do - be worthy. Same heart issue, different sin. And so began my struggle with body image, something that had never once been an issue in my life. You can imagine my confusion, but again, a matter of the heart. I think that it is so important to talk about because I see the struggle and strive to be thin and to be beautiful everywhere I go, especially in young women. Before I knew what was even happening to me, I realized that I was serving an idol in my life that came in the form of an eating disorder. A slave to counting calories, the scale, and a distorted view in the mirror of what beauty looked like. I felt defeated. I would cry out to the Lord: “Will I live my whole life constantly chasing a number on the scale?” (spoiler alert: The answer is NO!) Months and months I was a slave to numbers, restriction, excessive exercise, among other things in an attempt to find glory in WHAT I THOUGHT to be external beauty. But, then it hit me. Maybe I should rephrase that…… 

In my anguish I cried to the LORD, and He answered by setting me free. (Psalm 118:5)

That is when I heard the Lord LOUD and clear: “Spenser, you ARE free. You do not live in captivity to this any longer. I died for this. Stop building your tent here and living in it”. And that was it - I was free... and I was all along. And I am free today, always and forever. The Lord is so patient with me, and He has completely rewired me and taken my distorted view and replaced it with truth, from God's word of what beauty TRULY is. And while it is so absolutely wonderful to be healthy and to exercise (cough, Crossfit) , I know that true beauty is dependent on the woman that I am in Christ!

And so there you have it. I am free!

And SO ARE YOU if you trust in Jesus! And if you don't, well .. He is looking to free you too!  Don’t build your tent there in the struggle and camp out! Hand it over to the Lord, and remind yourself that anything you feel like you can’t escape from is exactly what Jesus died for! HE is capable! And HE has freed you.  And for that , we can forever be thankful! Happy day!

I will praise you, O Lord my God, with all my heart; I will glorify your name forever. For great is your love toward me; you have delivered me from the depths of the grave. (Psalm 86:12-13)