Slaves or free?

In our country, we have a strong desire to be free. Actually, I believe it goes much beyond our country, our culture- I'm not sure anyone is born with a profound desire to be a slave. But in our country, we take great pride in being the "land of the free."

Yet we are enslaved. How can that be?

We are slaves to our desires, to feeling inadequate if we don't measure up to our peers in income, material possessions, physique, achievements, so much so that we can never stop and enjoy the blessings we have; we can only see how it's not enough. We are slaves to our desires to "fix" that inner ache/emptiness we all have- some by using alcohol, sex, drugs, porn, food - even world-approved fixes like exercise, service to others and taking time for ourselves because "we deserve it."

But none of those things address the real issue. We have a longing for our Father in heaven, to know Him and be loved by Him, to belong and have purpose only He can give.

I was just reading Romans 6 and was just struck with the irony of it all. If we are obedient to our desires, we are slaves to sin, which leads to death. Aren't we taught to listen to our "inner voice"? That the answer is inside of us?

No, that's what got us into this fix in the first place. As Jeremiah 17:9 says, the heart is deceitful above all things - we can talk ourselves into whatever our sinful nature desires- we are very good at justifying what we want! But, when we follow our own desires, that leads us down the path of sin, enslaving us.

But how do we break free? What amazing feat of liberation must we perform to gain our freedom?
And therein lies the irony.We must submit.

What? Submission is the opposite of freedom, isn't it? I mean, what do slaves do? Submit, right?

But it's very clear, Romans 6 does not give us another option. Actually, it's more like recognizing that we are incapable of NOT submitting to something. We will either be slaves to our out of control appetites (flesh, sinful desires) or we will be slaves to obedience which leads to righteousness.

Even as Christians, our desire is to be free. We feel we should be beyond the pull of sin. I mean, we died to that, right? We've been set free, right? But we cannot do it alone. We must BE SLAVES to righteousness, to obey God.

We are slaves either way, but death is what we get if we offer ourselves to sin. Eternal life is our gift if we offer ourselves to Christ (Romans 6:23) and as Jesus said in John 8:36, when He sets us free, it is for REAL, we are truly free. God doesn't see us as a bunch of slaves - we are His children- we belong to Him and have a place in His kingdom forever!

So ironic or not, I choose freedom - real freedom. That is, submission to the Lord and obedience to Him. How about you?