Freedom at Last (Lockdown is Ending)

As we approach the summer months here in the UK there is a growing excitement that our commitment to staying in to help save lives will be coming to an end.

This has got me thinking about who or what we commit ourselves to.

· Do we sometimes compromise who we are to fit in with others?

· Do we prioritise the pursuit of our own pleasure above loving others?

· Perhaps we submit to our own feelings and let them dictate what we do?

These attitudes, priorities & what we delight in can lead us to commit ourselves to situations that limit us in life.

I would like to suggest that if we choose every day to commit our lives to Jesus, remembering that whatever we have got wrong, or wrongs that others have performed against us, he dealt with on the cross, then with his help we can overcome priorities and commitments that hold us back from living life to the full.

The Bible teaches that the same power that raised Jesus to new life, the person of the Holy Spirit (1 Peter 3:18), is available to all who trust in Jesus (Acts 2).

However, for many of us at times in our lives we may ‘feel’ that we are not fully experiencing the joy of being in relationship with this person (and power) of the Holy Spirit.

Have you ever felt:

· completely alone?

· rejected by others?

· like you are a mess on the inside or choices you have made have led to a messy situation in your life?

· overwhelmed by your feelings?

· you want to run away from a situation?

· abandoned by your family?

· separated from God’s love?

The answer to overcoming all of these (seven) very real and painful feelings I believe can actually be seen in the Easter story.

Jesus, who was both fully God ( Colossians 2:9) and fully man, chose, for the benefit of mankind, to live in a human body with all its limitations. He was and is always divine but he displayed his divinity only by the will of God the Father (John 5:19-20), never on His own initiative, and carried out his ministry empowered by the Holy Spirit.

In the Easter account we see that:

· Jesus both on the cross and in the Garden of Gethsemane felt alone.

· Jesus was rejected by his own people.

· The choices that others had made, for example Judas to betray Jesus, led to a very messy situation – the flogging, mocking and crucifixion of Jesus naked on a cross.

· Jesus was so overwhelmed by his feelings in the Garden of Gethsemane that he sweated blood.

· Jesus, instead of running from a situation, asked for the cup of suffering to be passed from him if it could be and said “Not my will but yours be done Father”.

· On the cross he cried out in abandonment – “My God, My God why have you forsaken me”.

Jesus always knew he was fully God and fully man. However, as a man he could have felt so confused on the inside when he knew he had to face the pain of the cross alone.

God the Father had said “this is my son with whom I am well pleased”( so Jesus even in his humanity knew his worth) but he still had to face crucifixion in obedience to the Father’s will!!

Perhaps you are facing a very painful situation and feel like Jesus did, separated from God the Father.

As a result you may think God doesn’t love you or because of something you have done you feel you are not worthy of his grace to deliver you from that situation.

The great news is that because of Jesus hanging alone on the cross we, despite our feelings, are never separated from God who has shown how much he values each of us by dying on a cross for us.

The other great news we see from the Easter story is God’s power to bring life out of a desperate situation.

Despite Jesus being crucified and seemingly all hope lost Jesus was raised to New life. So if you are walking through any (or maybe some) of the seven feelings listed earlier don’t lose hope. The same Spirit that raised Jesus to new life ( the person of the Holy Spirit) is available to you and nothing is impossible for God . Like Jesus, trust God the Father even when nothing makes sense and your feelings are overwhelming you. Everyday come to the end of yourself and say as Jesus did as he breathed his last breath -

“Father, into your hands I commit my spirit”.

Then, you will experience freedom at last and the person(s) or ‘thing’ you have been committing yourself to will hold no power over you (you will no longer be locked down). Like Jesus you can experience the resurrection power of the person of the Holy Spirit this Easter and every day of your life.