Finding Freedom | It Gets Worse Before It Gets Better
No one was born to be a slave. Yet slavery takes many forms, and oppression has many flavors. We all have experienced it. It can take only a moment to set a slave free from a slave owner, but years to get the slavery out of the person. Turns out, freedom is a long term work, and it comes from the inside out. Jesus has created a way for us to be truly free. Outside and in. You can find freedom from all that enslaves you
“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.” Galatians 5:1
It’s amazing what pain can do—pain wakes us up to our slavery and can make us willing to unlearn the ways of Egypt (our slavery) and agree with God about who we are. But the grip of Egypt is not easily released. Freedom has to come from the inside first.
Message Notes
Exodus 2:1-10
The pain of slavery is deep within us all.
But we have grown up learning to mask our symptoms.
Pain is intended to wake up us to our situation and to God’s love.
Pain is intended to be redemptive.
Exodus 2:11-21
Moses tried to bring freedom his own way, and he failed miserably.
Before Moses could become the deliverer, he had to unlearn Egypt.
It took a whole lot of pain, desert, and empty for him to unlearn the ways of slavery.
Years passed, and the king of Egypt died. But the Israelites continued to groan under their burden of slavery. They cried out for help, and their cry rose up to God.God heard their groaning, and he remembered his covenant promise to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He looked down on the people of Israel and knew it was time to act.
Exodus 2:23
The God of Abraham invites us to empty ourselves, and learn the way of freedom.
Bottom Line
It’s amazing what pain can do—and it always get worse before it gets better.
Action Step
Identify areas of pain in your life where God might be trying to wake you up.
Identify what you need to “unlearn” in order to leave slavery behind you?
Say the prayer from your heart several times a day:
“God,
help me set aside everything I think I know
about myself, my brokenness,
my spiritual path, and especially You,
so I may have an open mind
and a new experience of freedom.
Please let me know the truth.
May it set me free.
Your will be done.
Amen.”
