Don’t you just love the title? It has a bit of a groovy feel to it, doesn’t it? It pretty much explains it all I’d say. But let’s talk about it for a bit anyways. Everyone wants to be free these days. Especially teenagers. Wow! When our parents tell us what to do, we get all riled up and think, “I can’t wait ’till I’m on my own and can do things my way.” However, truth be told, when it’s time to do things our way, it’s not that fun and easy, is it?

But yet we all want to be free. Even adults. Sometimes we don’t see why our boss wants things done a certain way or he wants us to work later than we’d like. So we grumble and complain saying,”When I’m my own boss I’ll do it differently.” But when the time comes and God blesses us with our own business, we have all these decisions to make, so we start to grumble and complain some more. We have so much more to worry about. We thought we could say when to leave for vacations or when to quiet for the day, but no, there’s always something to take care of first.

Okay, it’s not always this bad like I made it sound. Most of us our secretly glad and know that we are blessed, and that’s just how life is. But still we tell ourselves we want to be free. In the cases I listed above we all want freedom from work. From something or someone telling us what to do. In this case, the top layer screams for freedom, but the bottom layer wouldn’t want freedom, because people need to keep going with work–with life. But non-the-less, like I said, the top layer wants rest and freedom from responsibility.

But in other cases . . . now I’m talking about the serious cases, the top layer is okay with chains and shackles, but the bottom layer screams for freedom. It screams for freedom from nervousness, from anxiety, from fear, from sin, from worry, from stress: we want this out! Yet, we don’t notice it half the time. Half the time we live our life telling ourselves, I’m a stressful person, I worry, I fight anxiety; that’s just who I am. Then you smile to your friends and walk away or you chuckle a bit and shrug your shoulders. Life goes on with a smile and an overall happy heart. But every now and then it’ll get really bad and we feel that little part in our gut saying, “I want to be free from this.” Until it surrounds our life, until fear slams us in it’s trap, not letting us go left or right. Stress comes in and swirls us around until our head hurts and our body shakes.

Once this happens we know something has to change. But how? Some people seek medical help, I think that’s the most common one. Medication does help, I’ve seen it first hand, but I’ve also seen it fail. Perhaps it’s because it wasn’t the right medication, or maybe it was and they just didn’t use it right. Medication will help I think, but it won’t do enough. Therapy will also help, depends on what you’re dealing with I guess. I sunk to that level when in my preteen years, because of shyness ( I’l write about that another time). In some cases, what I’m about to say could be a lot like therapy, but free of cost. Let me take a break and explain how this worked for me.

I worry, I stress, but mostly I fear. But through Jesus I learned to put that aside and focus on Him. A couple weeks ago I had to speak in front of a lot of people and I told myself I would not get nervous, because Jesus would hold me. I was free of fear because Jesus was right there with me. I have always gotten nervous easily and sometimes worried, but I told myself no more! I was going to go up there and speak confidently and calm. From this day on, I would give up my fear to Jesus and let His peace surround me, until fear no longer surrounded me. And when I was up there, I remembered that; I felt completely calm and without fear. I smiled to myself instead, thinking this was Jesus Freedom.

This may sound a little lighthearted and simple, but a lot of people get nervous before speaking right? And this is literally what I did. Of course I was still somewhat nervous, but it wasn’t terrible, fear gripping nervousness. Which I used to always feel before speaking, before meeting new people, before playing a new sport– a lot of this also has to do with shyness, but like fear, shyness can be set free with Jesus Freedom. (I’ll talk a little more shyness in the future.)

Feeling nervous before speaking is a real thing and does happen to a lot of people. But there are bigger problems–of course! Life is big; life is small. Yet, even with my little problem, in my little world, Jesus was there to set me free. Because He cares. He cares for everyone and anything we’re dealing with. If anxiety, fear, nervousness or anything I mentioned above, or even more, surrounds our day, Jesus can set us free. Medication helps, but the best thing to do–in my experience–give up the burden and hand it to Jesus. And remember He is with us and we were not meant to be wrapped up in fear, but to be wrapped up in grace, love and freedom through Jesus (Galatians 5:13). Jesus Freedom.

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