“But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 6:22-23 NIV

I like to read Paul’s letters, he is a “tell it how it is” kind of guy. Here he tells us that we are set free from sin and death by our faith and acceptance of Jesus as our Lord and Savior. We have traded our lives of sin (and ultimately death) for abundant lives filled with God and eternal life. We all need to let this freedom reign in our lives.

“God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” 2 Corinthians 5:21 Through Christ our sins are forgiven, period, done. God now sees us through the righteousness of Jesus. We have become the “righteous” children of the Most High God. And as we have been forgiven, we are also told to forgive others. But do you know who the hardest person to forgive is? Yeah, ourselves.

We have been offered this amazing gift of freedom, but we sometimes find it hard to forgive ourselves and claim it. We feel guilty and undeserving even though the Bible tells us that God forgives our sins and removes them “as far as the east is from the west”. Each of us needs to grab hold of this promise of absolute, loving forgiveness and live joyously and confidently in the freedom God offers.

This week, let freedom reign in your life. Put past failures and mistakes behind you for good. If you have confessed them and asked for forgiveness, God has already forgiven you and forgotten them. Confidently live your life in the freedom of God’s love, mercy, grace, guidance, and forgiveness. “Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.” Hebrews 4:16

I thank God for each of you! And I thank you for joining me this week as we let freedom reign in our abundant and God filled lives.

Blessings and freedom!