“I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, so that you would no longer be their slaves. I broke the bars of your yoke and enabled you to live in freedom.” – Leviticus 26:13

God is still in the business of freeing people! What He did for the Israelites He wants to do for you and those you care about. Too many of us live enslaved to the fears, addictions, delights, concerns, and stuff of this world. We might hate what enslaves us or we might love it, but we remain chained to it – afraid, defensive, and feeling stuck. When offered a better and freer future, we struggle to imagine what it looks like or how to get there. That’s where God comes in!

God gave His Son Jesus to set men and women, boys and girls free. Jesus came, lived, died, and rose again so that all who put their faith in Him could live in true freedom. He frees us from death – though we will die, followers of Jesus will live on forever in the presence of God. He frees us from the penalty for our sins – by His sacrifice on the cross, we are reconciled to God. He frees us from loneliness and fear, because Christ lives within us forevermore – we are never alone and we need not fear. He empowers us to be free of the powerful appetites of our bodies and minds, that we might live truly free in God. He frees us from the labels this world sticks on us and that we stick upon ourselves and makes us children of God. He frees us from the crippling demands of transactional love and expectation-driven relationships, allowing us to live by the unearned gift of grace. He frees us from the relentless obsession with ourselves that ultimately drives us to the darkest and unhealthiest places imaginable, allowing us to instead grow in the One we were actually made to worship and love.

The reality is that we’re often so trapped by what enslaves us that we can’t even imagine how glorious true freedom is. In fact, we often think that the freedom offered by God is a burden, while the burden that crushes us daily is freedom. However God offers true, lasting, forever freedom through faith in Christ. “So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.” (John 8:36)

“I acknowledged my sin to you,
and I did not cover my iniquity;
I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord,”
and you forgave the iniquity of my sin.“
– Psalm 32:5

We all have things in our lives that we shouldn’t have thought, said, or done. We have moments (or perhaps years) of selfishness, cruelty, greed, jealousy, or self-indulgence that go too far. We have rebelled against God’s good design and plan for our lives and maybe we cared about that and maybe we didn’t. There have also been times when we’ve stood by and let things happen that we should’ve said or done something to stop, but didn’t.

All these things are sin, and we’ve all sinned. Sin separates us from God who never sins. Sometimes we like to pretend sin doesn’t exist, explaining away our sins, numbing our conscience, and trying to move on. But it doesn’t really work. It doesn’t change the fact that we’ve sinned and separated ourselves from God, leaving a great gaping hole in our hearts. Other times, we know very well that we’ve sinned and we feel trapped by it. We believe that something in our past or present is so awful that we can’t ever move past our sin. We feel hopeless and condemned, defined by our sin and without a future.

The good news is that there is always a way out of sin! There is a way to be restored in relationship to God, to enjoy His love and blessing, and to experience His ongoing presence in our lives. When you put your faith in Jesus Christ, who died to pay the penalty for your sins and reconcile you to your Creator, then all you must do is recognize, turn away from, and confess your sins. Know that God will, with 100% certainty, forgive everything, embracing you as His beloved child.

“Blessed be the Lord,
for he has wondrously shown his steadfast love to me
when I was in a besieged city.”
– Psalm 31:21

As you listen to the relentless drumbeat of bad news related to coronavirus you might begin to feel like you’re under siege. This may be particularly true if you begin to feel anxious or unsafe going out and must withdraw from social and religious activities you cherish. If that siege mentality begins to set in, don’t give in to despair. Instead, actively look for God’s steadfast love in the midst of everything!

Use this time to lean into God in increased daily prayer, personal Bible study, and meditation on Scripture. Begin or expand personal or family worship at home: take advantage of the abundant resources to stream worship music and sing along, pray together, read Scripture aloud, and discuss its meaning and application. Make a point in your personal quiet time and in family time to identify ways God has revealed His love to you in both the past and the present day.

As we cultivate the habit of looking for God’s activity and love it gets easier and easier to see Him at work in both the big things and the tiny details. If you come to feel stressed and under siege, use your time well to see and experience the God who is with you every moment during your siege, loving and supporting you throughout.

“Be on guard, keep awake. For you do not know when the time will come. It is like a man going on a journey, when he leaves home and puts his servants in charge, each with his work, and commands the doorkeeper to stay awake. Therefore stay awake—for you do not know when the master of the house will come, in the evening, or at midnight, or when the rooster crows, or in the morning” – Mark 13:33-35

Jesus is absolutely coming back and His return will be spectacular! Nonetheless, He’s very clear about what His followers are NOT to do in the meantime. We are NOT to spend our days obsessing about when He will return – that’s unknown and unknowable. We are NOT to doubt or forget the fact that He will return – that’s foolishness.

We ARE to do the work He has given us to do. Period. He has given His followers (the church) work and He expects us to do that work faithfully every day until He returns. What is our work? Make disciples who make disciples. Go and invite others to join the Kingdom of God by God’s grace through faith in Jesus. Proclaim the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus and invite new followers to join the Kingdom and be baptized. Teach them to live lives of obedience to His commands, including the one about making disciples who make disciples.

What else are we to do? Worship God joyously. Love each other visibly. Love God completely. Love every neighbor selflessly. Care for and defend the most vulnerable among us so that others will praise God. Become more and more like Jesus personally. We’ve each got work to do and there is no better, greater, more important work than what we are each expected to do as followers of our glorious Savior!

“You have turned for me my mourning into dancing;
you have loosed my sackcloth
and clothed me with gladness”
– Psalm 30:11

This is one of the wonderful things God does for those who have embraced Christ when we lean into Him in our grief. In the midst of mourning, sorrow, and personal darkness, He can fill us with joy, delight, and gladness. Sometimes He does that by changing our circumstances for the better. But far more often and important, He does that in the midst of whatever we’re struggling with by giving us more of Himself.

As we grow in our relationship with God, pursuing Him daily in reading, meditation, prayer, worship, and ministry, we grow in our experience of Him. We grow in our understanding of Him and His glorious nature. We grow in our awareness of His presence in our suffering. As we do, the fruit of the Holy Spirit grows within us, filling us with love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

As our experience of the infinite God of the universe fills and overflows our finite hearts, we are moved to dance amidst mourning and to be glad in the midst of fear and sorrow. None of this invalidates the reality or pain of our earthly situation, yet we increasingly discover the ultimate and eternal joy of God in our heavenly situation.