Happy Friday everyone! Today as we celebrate Independence Day, we honor the courage and sacrifice it took to win our freedom. We’re so blessed to live in a nation where we can gather openly, speak freely, and worship without fear. We’re not perfect, but we are profoundly grateful for the freedoms we enjoy in this country. There’s another kind of captivity though, one that doesn’t start with chains and guards, but rather with choices.

Steve Farrar said, “Sin will take you farther than you wanted to go.” You see, nobody plans to end up in bondage to things like addiction or bitterness or shame. Sin often starts with just one small compromise. James 1:14-15 tells us, “Each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed. Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin, and sin, when it is full grown, gives birth to death.”

Sin carries us beyond the place we ever thought we’d go. To that end, Proverbs 4 warns us this way, “Do not set foot on the path of the wicked, or walk in the way of evildoers. Avoid it. Do not travel on it. Turn from it and go on your way.” But praise God. He fought and won for our freedom. Jesus’s death and resurrection brought us freedom and turned us back away from the sinful drift and direction of our lives and draws us into an eternal life in His presence. In fact, we live now in this new freedom. Galatians 5:1 says, “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.”

So this weekend, as you reflect on the blessings of living in a free country, remember even the greater freedom that Jesus has won for you, a freedom no one can take away. And ask, “Where am I taking steps that lead farther than I want to go?”, and cry out to God for that rescue and new life to point you back into that direction that He’s won and secured for you.

Prayer
Lord, thank You for the freedoms we enjoy in this country, and even more for the freedom You won for us at the Cross. Give us courage to turn back before we drift too far. Keep our feet on Your path of life. Amen.