THINK TOGETHER
What is freedom? Are you free?
READ TOGETHER
God wants us to be free. God doesn’t want us to be robots or puppets that he forces to do things. And that is why God has given us the Holy Spirit to live in our hearts. Listen to this verse that Paul wrote to the Corinthians:
2 Corinthians 3:17. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.
When you have Jesus you have the Spirit of God living inside of you. And when you have the Spirit of God living inside of you, you have freedom.
When we think about freedom we often think of being freed from something bad. So what does the Spirit of God set us free from?
We are free from having to earn our way to God and to heaven.
We are free from the punishment for our sins.
We are free from feeling like we have to be selfish all the time.
We are free from having to perform or prove how good we are to God (and others).
We are free from dying and being separated from God.
So far all of this is great news isn’t it?
But there’s more good news.
Not only are we free FROM bad things, we are also free TO good things.
What are we free to?
We are free to love God.
We are free to serve and obey God.
We are free to be ourselves.
We are free to make mistakes and still be loved.
We are free to be kind to others.
We are free to be brave knowing that no matter what we are with Jesus.
We are free to do good without keeping score or worrying about getting a grade from God.
God doesn’t want you to be a puppet like Pinocchio. He wants you to become a real boy or real girl who chooses to love God and others because he first loved us and gave his life to us through Jesus. He wants us to obey him because we want to, not just because we have to. And with the Spirit this freedom is possible. It is ours with Jesus.
Because of Jesus we are free!
With Jesus we can choose to love God and others because we want to not just because we have to.
DO SOMETHING TOGETHER
Watch this scene from Pinocchio together. Pinocchio becomes a real boy instead of a puppet, just like we become real when we receive Jesus’ life. But notice at the end of the scene Jiminy Cricket says, “You deserve to be a real boy.” With Jesus we don’t deserve to become real, he makes us real simply because we trust him and he loves us.
PRAY TOGETHER
Jesus,
You gave us your Spirit and now we are free. Free from sin and death and free to love and obey God. Help me to always live in your great freedom.
Amen.
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