TRULY FREE

Would you consider yourself a free person? On what basis would you make your evaluation? What would you say makes a free person? After years of ministry I am convinced that there are sometimes more people in prison that are free then those who are walking around as prisoners on the loose. Those who are in prison often have less opportunities to be tempted but we however, feel as if freedom is our chance to "do what we want." There is much deception in that frame of mind.

These questions force us to define what we mean by freedom. Truly free people have four ingredients of liberty.

1. They have dealt with the past and are free from incriminating memories of failure.
2. They have experienced forgiveness which has extricated them from self-condemnation.
3. They have been released from the bonds of compulsive patterns.
4. They have been emancipated from dependence on the opinions and criticism of people.

From these basic elements flows the freedom to accept and love ourselves, give affirmation and esteem to others, and live with confidence concerning the future. This quality of freedom comes only from fellowship with Christ. Yet I am painfully aware that there are many Christians who believe in Christ, but who are not free. How can we be free?

The world and believers need to experience the dynamic of the cross. Only the power of the cross can grant us our personal liberation from the failures of the past and the disturbing memories of what might have been. The power of the cross also can grant us freedom from being unsettled by the criticism of others who demand we live up to their standards.

It is when we experience such release we are on our way to being unlocked from the prisons of the past and enabled to breathe the fresh air of our deliverance.

Remember this truth: Failure is an event, not a person.

-Tony Cruz