Freedom!!!

Freedom is a wonderful thing, if it is recognized and responsibility is maintained.  We can be free from something and still be hindered because we haven't acclimated to our unrestrained access to the newness it provides.  For example, riding a bicycle.  That may seem like a childish example but bear with me. 

As a child, it took me a while to learn how to ride a bicycle.  I couldn't go out riding with the other kids or with my brother.  I was stuck at home because I couldn't keep up on foot.  Once I finally learned to ride, I felt free because I could then go when everyone else went.  I could ride where they rode. I was no longer bound by my inability to operate that piece of childhood equipment.

Problem was, though, I thought that I could ride as fast and hard as I could without paying much attention to my surroundings.  On one particular ride, I was flying down the road to my house, wind in my face, with total abandon.  I wasn't looking down at the road to see what I might encounter in the immediate future.  Then, it caught me totally unaware - a pothole.  I was moving so fast that when I hit the pothole, I flew over the handlebars and onto the pavement.  I was scratched up from head to toe.  Blood and sweat inter-mingled for a very unpleasant walk home.  I was in too much pain to get back on the bike just then.

You see, had I been paying attention to my surroundings, I could have easily avoided that pothole and continued to ride on into the evening.  I wasn't ready for my new-found freedom.  We may experience the same thing in our relationship with God.  When He sets us free from, say, an addiction or even a bad attitude, we aren't mature enough to handle that new freedom and end up taking on some weight that we have no business carrying around.  You may have been set free from a drug addiction, but just because you're free doesn't mean that you are ready to go back and immediately begin witnessing to your former supplier or people you used with.  They will drag you right back into what you just came out of because of your naivety concerning the responsibilities of your freedom.

True freedom consists of two parts.  The first is the immediate deliverance from the taste, sound, feeling, and/or thought of the binding behavior.  That's when God moves on you in such a way that you know you've been touched and changed in that particular moment in time. At that point, you have absolutely no desire to go back to what you used to do.  The thought of it literally repulses you.

The second part of freedom consists of taking the stairs.  Your new freedom is a process.  Steps must be taken, in order, so that you are able to remain free.  Embracing your new relationship with God is paramount.  Prayer and an appetite for the Word of God are essential to growth.  Without those, you will fall quickly.  Then, learning where you should and shouldn't go and who you should and shouldn't be around will allow you to remain in your area of freedom until you are mature enough to venture out a little bit further.

Don't rush the process.  Allow yourself time to grow up spiritually, mentally, and emotionally.  We weren't made to be able to withstand but a certain amount of pressure before we succumb to the tremendous weight of the burden.  Don't try to do and get everything at once.  Enjoy the fact that God saw fit to pull you out of bondage and set you up on a rock, saving your life, and preparing you to live a new life in Him.  Don't abuse your freedom.  Maximize it.