Embracing Freedom in God’s Love

-


One of the many questions I have been asked over my twenty-five-plus years in ministry centers on the ideas of free will and God's love.  

People often ask me, "What does it mean when we speak of our free will concerning God?" In other words, do we have the option to resist God's love or God's will for us?   Typically, the conversation leads to another question: "Why does a loving God allow bad things to happen to good people?" 

I see these two questions as inextricably intertwined.  And I found the perfect quote from one of my favorite books from over a decade ago, "Love Wins" by author, and former pastor, Rob Bell.  

“Love demands freedom. It always has, and it always will. We are free to resist, reject, and rebel against God's ways for us. We can have all the hell we want.” 

Those words are both sobering and liberating. God’s love is not coercive. It does not manipulate or force us into submission. Love, by its very nature, must allow for freedom—otherwise, it ceases to be love. God created us with the capacity to choose because genuine love cannot exist without the option to walk away.

Paul reminds us in 2 Corinthians 3:17: “Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.” Freedom is not a careless license to live however we want; it’s an invitation to live fully in the presence of God’s Spirit. This is a freedom rooted in grace—a freedom from fear, from shame, from the endless striving to earn God’s favor.\

And yet, freedom can feel risky. What if we misuse it? What if we fail? That’s where another powerful truth comes in: “There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear” (1 John 4:18). Fear has no place where love reigns. God’s love is perfect, not ours. It’s steady when we waver, constant when we falter. It casts out fear because it reassures us that nothing—absolutely nothing—can separate us from the love of Christ.

Rob Bell’s quote forces us to face the reality that God gives us room to resist. If we want to cling to anger, bitterness, or despair, we can. But why would we? God’s love is not a cage; it is an open horizon. In God's love, we discover what it means to truly live—free from fear, free from condemnation, free to become everything God created us to be.

So today, what will you choose? Will you settle for the smallness of fear and control, or will you embrace the spacious freedom of God’s love? Take a deep breath and let God's Spirit remind you: you are loved, you are free, and you are called to live boldly and joyfully.

Step into that freedom today. Learn what it means to embrace God’s love so fully that your life reflects His purpose. Live as one who is genuinely free—because where God's Spirit is, that’s exactly who you are.

(I'm trying something new today, I'm adding a short prayer that you can pray as you finish reading today's Devo)

"God of love and freedom, thank You for setting me free through Your Spirit. Help me to let go of fear and embrace the life You have called me to live. Teach me to walk boldly in Your love and use my freedom for Your glory. Amen."

Comments

Post a Comment

Thanks for leaving a comment! If you comment Anonymously, your comment will summarily be deleted.

Popular posts from this blog

Rich Mullins' Life & Legacy

-
Image
Rich Mullins was among the most influential Christian musical artists in the 80s and 90s.  His songs Awesome God  and Step by Step  were staples in the early 90s for worship bands in churches with "contemporary" worship services.  His songs have been recorded by artists like Amy Grant, Caedmon's Call, Jars of Clay, and others.    After spending years at the pinnacle of success as a popular Christian artist, Mullins became fed up with the Christian music industry and evangelical Christianity.   He moved to a Navajo reservation to teach music to kids and to work on projects near and dear to his heart like his collaboration with like-minded artists in the Ragamuffin Band.  Someone asked him if he moved to the reservation to proselytize the Navajo, and Mullins emphatically told them he wasn't.  In fact, he said that he was hoping to find Jesus there among them.  Mullins was tragically killed in 1997 in a car accident on the way to a ben...
Read more

Rapha & Yada - "Be Still & Know": Reimagined

-
Image
One of the most well-used verses in the Bible comes to us from Psalm 46:10, which reads like this:  He says, “Be still, and know that I am God;     I will be exalted among the nations,     I will be exalted in the earth.” That one line---"Be still, and know that I am God"---finds its way into greeting cards, wall art, church signs and the like.  And it sounds so nice, doesn't it?  But what does it actually mean ? What does it mean to be still  and know  that God is God?  Well, to dig deeper into that phrase to see what it's really saying, I'm going to have to bust out some Hebrew--so, don't hold it against me. The Hebrew word that's used here for the phrase "be still" is the word  rapha. And get this... It means "to hang limp, sink down, be feeble."  That's a heckuva lot different than what we usually take the phrase "be still" to mean, right? I don't know about you, but whenever I have heard that verse ...
Read more

The Lord Needs It: Lessons From A Donkey

-
Image
This Sunday is Palm Sunday---the beginning of Holy Week. It's also one of those Sundays when you can't ignore the church calendar and just preach whatever you want.  I am sure that some people do just that, but they probably aren't Presbyterian, and I am sure that the liturgical rhythm of the Church is not first and foremost in their mind. And they probably have had no trouble at all working on their sermon this week. I'm not one to blindly follow tradition, but there are some things that you just don't do---and you can't just ignore  the story of Jesus' Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday.   But this leads to a bit of a quandary...  In the short time I have been doing this whole preaching thing I have gone through the Palm Sunday story a few times.  After a while you sort of wonder if your congregation has heard your Palm Sunday riff a few too many times. That sermon needs to get preached, though.  While we celebrate the che...
Read more