Freedom

Can I just say how I've been feeling?

Tired.
Like a failure.
Stuck.

This past week my 2 year old was sick and therefore kept me up at all odd hours of the night. Not joking. Sometimes I was up at EVERY odd numbered hour of the night with her. My priority was not what went into my body. Each bite was a conscious decision and I chose to eat what I knew my mind wanted not what my body needed. Do you understand me? My sleep deprived, food addicted mind wanted sugar, which it associates with comfort, while my body was pleading for fuel to combat the fatigue and renew me.

We've been in Hebrews 12 for the last 2 Sundays. "...let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us.." This verse is meant to be figurative but to me holds such a literal meaning. My sin is my weight-my lack of self control-my addiction and lust for food. I've struggled with it for so long and every time I "lay it aside" I turn around and, for whatever reason, pick it back up again. It is my "sin which so easily ensnares".

I've prayed for freedom. But what is freedom? And how am I truly expecting to see it? What examples of God's greatness am I going to use to TRUST that He is fully capable and willing to free me?

The Cross.

Oh, the cross. The wonderful cross. What happened at the cross? Jesus paid ALL debts of sin. ALL SIN! Including reoccurring ones. God became man and sacrificed Himself...

But it doesn't stop there. Oh, no.

The Grave.

God became man and sacrificed himself for my freedom. He paid my debt on the cross and he DEFEATED MY SIN, YOUR SIN AND DEATH when He rose again! He has the victory over sin! He has already CONQUERED this sin that I keep picking back up, if only I would just lay it down and leave it. He purchased my freedom on the cross and obliterated the power of sin by rising again.

I never really understood, the way I do right now, the POWER that came with the resurrection ...the power over death and sin-the power over my ensnaring sin.

Straight from my journal: Sin has no power where Jesus is. Jesus conquered the grave and the thing that leads to death-sin! Because Jesus has already bought my freedom with His blood am I, through Him, going to be able to conquer this. There is freedom!