Don’t Squander Your Liberty
Galatians 5:13 My brothers and sisters, God chose you to be free. But don’t use your freedom as an excuse to do what pleases your sinful selves. Instead, serve each other with love.
Yep, it’s the fourth of July. No matter where on this planet you live, you’d have to be hiding under a rock not to realise that for the USA, the wealthiest country in the world, it’s Independence Day.
Independence is about freedom, but without going all woke on you (which I’m not) it’s a historical fact that America’s prosperity was built on the back of slavery; the terrible oppression of people based on their ethnicity and skin colour.
Praise God that’s no longer the case. But did you know that the tiny West African country of Liberia, with a population of just under 5 million, was founded in the mid 1800’s by emancipated slaves from America? Which is why its flag looks an awful lot like the American flag, but with just one star instead of fifty.
Yet, by the late 1900’s, military coups and the brutal dictatorship of Charles Taylor led to civil war and terrible oppression. Wouldn’t you think that emancipated slaves would want to live in peace, in the freedom and liberty that the name of their country – Liberia – proclaims!
But no … because other than giving you a brief history lesson, the point of this discussion is that we humans have an amazing capacity to squander our freedom; to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.
Galatians 5:13 My brothers and sisters, God chose you to be free. But don’t use your freedom as an excuse to do what pleases your sinful selves. Instead, serve each other with love.
This warning comes not just to Americans or Liberians but to all of us, because when we set about doing what pleases our sinful nature, we squander our God-given freedom.
Instead, serve each other with love.
That’s God’s Word. Fresh … for you … today.
Blessed by this devotion?
Share it with a friend!
Respond