It’s Friday…We’ve Been Cut Free

As we celebrate our 246^th year of Independence as Americans this weekend, my heart is also rejoicing that as children of God we are set free from the oppression of sin.

Israel rejoiced in the fact that despite years of oppression – despite slavery in Egypt, domination by foreign powers, captivities in Assyria and Babylon, and the threat of growing empires – it was a redeemed people with eternal promises. It could have left its collective psyche be absorbed with a sense of inferiority and futility, except for one thing: God kept delivering them. No one can feel inferior and futile when The Sovereign LORD keeps intervening on their behalf, for their blessing. A history of redemption allows people to define themselves not by their enslaved past, but by their liberated future. Could this truth also apply to us as Americans? I believe so.

“The LORD is righteous; He has cut me free from the cords of the wicked.” (Psalm 129:4)

Yes, like Israel, we too, could be absorbed with our past, dwelling on our captivities and futility. We could remember the times we’ve been enslaved, the times we’ve been brutalized, and especially the times we’ve suffered self-inflicted wounds from our own disobedience. But our history isn’t defined by such failures. It is defined by God who redeems us from them.

God has cut us free from the cords of the wicked. In fact, the wicked never mastered us (v.2). we may have been dominated, oppressed, enslaved, and ridiculed in our sinful, fallen condition – the Bible reminds us often that we were bound by sin. But the wicked and their cords did not gain victory. Jesus did. A cross and an empty tomb are our assurance of that.

If you’re like most of us, you tend to regret aspects of your past and lament your failures. That’s normal, but it’s not how God defines us as people, and as a nation. The failure exists for one explicit purpose: to highlight The Redeemer. It’s our redemption that defines who we are.

So, let’s live by the promise of our future today. If God is our King, it’s a glorious future, signaled by cut cords and the fading wake of wickedness behind us. Whatever our past failures as individuals or as a nation, We’ve Been Cut Free from them. They don’t have any power over us, they never will. The Redeemer trumps the oppressors every time. Yes, every time! We are free!

Have a liberating weekend. Make it better by worshiping The LORD with those who don’t live in the failures of the past but rejoice in the freedom found in Christ and who live to share such good news with others.

All For Jesus – Nothing More, Nothing Less, Nothing Else.

“He who is the blessed and only Sovereign, The King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone has immortality, who dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can see, to Him be honor and eternal dominion. Amen.” (1 Timothy 6:15b-16)