By Hal Green
Pondering Prayer
Though you may at times fear the truth, Jesus says that, “you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free . . . So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed” (John 8:32,36). The apostle Paul echoes Christ’s words when he says, “For freedom Christ has set us free. Stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery” (Gal 5:1).
At the heart of Jesus’ mission was his passion to set us free from every manner of bondage. In his very first message to humanity, delivered to his own people in Nazareth, Jesus quoted the prophet Isaiah (61:1-2):
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” He rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down. The eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. Then he began to say to them, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing” (Luke 4:18-21).
The freedom of Christ is a freedom from and freedom for. Paul indicates what this is a freedom from:
“For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death . . . For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the children of God; for the creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and will obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God” (Rom 8:2,19-21).
Paul also describes what the freedom Christ brought us is for:
“Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And all of us, with unveiled faces, seeing the glory of the Lord as though reflected in a mirror, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another; for this comes from the Lord, the Spirit” (2 Corinthians 3:17-18).
Jesus Christ offers us freedom from all forms of bondage, from anything that would prevent us from seeking and finding God. He has freed us for communing face to face with the Lord and for being transformed into Christlikeness. You will become like the one you face.
You can experience no greater freedom than in prayer. No one can stop you from praying or determine what you pray. Therefore, embrace your freedom; as you pray, feel the bird-like freedom of flight, in the limitless heavens of God’s love.
(Hal Green, Ph.D., is author of Pray This Way to Connect with God. You can contact him at drhalgreen@gmail.com.)
