Jesus = Freedom

Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. — 2 Corinthians 3:17

Have you ever done something that you really didn’t want to do, but it seemed like you just couldn’t help yourself?

The thing is, if you are honest, you did want to do it. At least in the moment. You may have known it was wrong, or hurtful or destructive. But the pleasure of the present controlled your choices, even though you may have almost immediately regretted them.

We have freedom from these kind of careless and sinful decisions once we have accepted the love and forgiveness that Jesus offers us. The Holy Spirit lives within us, and we are freed from the power of sin. We can still fall to its influence, but we are not bound to obey as we were before the saving grace of Jesus. We are able to resist, because we have freedom from all that we once were-our wrong desires, our bad habits, our addictions, our selfish pride. We are released from following sin by following Jesus.

We may still stumble. The memories of past gratifications are still around. Bad influences surround us. But when we do fall, God is quick to forgive and welcoming in His love. We start new and keep following the way of freedom as we look to Jesus. We have within us the Holy Spirit. And we are free!

Originally published at https://smallvoice.today .