"If you remain in my word, you will truly be my disciples,
and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free."
We can have freedom even when the world binds us and throws us in the furnace.
"But," he replied, "I see four men unfettered and unhurt,
walking in the fire, and the fourth looks like a son of God."
It is not a freedom from challenges. It is a freedom in the midst of them. It is a freedom to pass through them untouched so that "not a hair of their heads had been singed, nor were their garments altered; there was not even a smell of fire about them" (see Daniel 3:94).
We need to recognize that the freedom which tend to value isn't the deep and true freedom that we truly need.
Jesus answered them, "Amen, amen, I say to you,
everyone who commits sin is a slave of sin.
A slave does not remain in a household forever,
but a son always remains.
So if the Son frees you, then you will truly be free.
The freedom we need is not freedom from circumstance or oppression. It is not even freedom from temptation. It is freedom such that we are no longer slaves of sin. It is a freedom where circumstances no longer control us. All of those fires may burn all around us but we ourselves remain untouched.
There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it (see First Corinthians 10:13).
The freedom Jesus offers is not a freedom from. It is a freedom through and in the midst of trials.
When you pass through the waters, I will be with you;
and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you;
when you walk through fire you shall not be burned,
and the flame shall not consume you (see Isaiah 43:2).
How much time do we spend convincing ourselves that the freedom that truly matters is the freedom to avoid trials in the first place? How much time do we spend trying to get around them? Perhaps this will be possible, but if not, it should be no great thing to us. We should be always ready to go through knowing that God will bring us out the other side.
What is in front of us is less important than he with whom we face it.
So if the Son frees you, then you will truly be free.
So let's go boldly forward today, with the Son at our side, as children of the Father.
Blessed are you on the throne of your kingdom,
praiseworthy and exalted above all forever.
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