Click this link to hear an audio version of the below text narrated by SOTH member Jerry Rhinehart:
Galatians 5:1 (ESV)
Christ Has Set Us Free
5 For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.
Romans 8:12-15 (ESV)
Heirs with Christ
12 So then, brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. 13 For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. 14 For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. 15 For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!”
These two brief passages reinforce what we learned last Sunday in Colossians 1:13-14. God has freed us through the Gospel; so don’t live in slavery. That includes being a slave to peer pressure, being a slave to ignorance, being a slave to our sinful and destructive desires, and being a slave to our fears. The Holy Spirit’s job is to remind us of God’s love and God’s will, so that we are free again. Pray that God will fill you with such a sense of his presence, wisdom, and love, that you will be truly free.