Our Freedom in Christ
“Then the people of Israel and Judah will join together,” says the Lord, “weeping and seeking the Lord their God. They will ask the way to Jerusalem and will start back home again. They will bind themselves to the Lord with an eternal covenant that will never again be broken.” Jeremiah 50:4-5
Advertisement
If you have ever won a spiritual battle, experienced victory over temptation, or been delivered from an addiction, you know the joy of being set free. Freedom is exhilarating, but the joy of victory is often tainted by the threat of losing our freedom again. Maintaining our freedom can be just as daunting as gaining it. God’s words of hope for Israel in Jeremiah 50 can guide us in our prayers for gaining and maintaining our freedom. God describes what will happen when he delivers his people after seventy long years of captivity. Israel and Judah will experience unity, weep tears of repentance, and seek the Lord and his counsel for their trip home. These elements are crucial when we can ask the Lord to accomplish these things for us in order to gain freedom.
But the key to maintaining our freedom is found in verse 5: “They will bind themselves to the Lord with an eternal covenant that will never again be broken.” If we stay connected to the Lord, his power will give us the strength to resist the places, people, thoughts, and sins that led us into captivity in the first place.
Prayers:
LORD, thank you for the gift of freedom you bought for me on the cross. Thank you that in Christ I no longer walk as a slave. Guard my steps and my thoughts from places that will snare me again, and use me to help others walk in your freedom.
Quotes:
Remember, we never find freedom from bondage in independence. We find it by taking the same handcuffs that once bound us to sin and binding ourselves to the wrist of Christ.
Beth Moore
The One Year Bible Readings for today are: Jeremiah 49:23–50:46; Titus 1:1-16; Psalm 97:1–98:9 and Proverbs 26:13-16.
