The Way Forward - Set Free To Live Free
Set Free to Live Free: Finding God's Freedom in the New Year
As we step into a new year, many of us are asking the same fundamental question: How do I get from where I am to where God wants me to be? This isn't just about making resolutions or setting goals—it's about discovering the abundant life that Jesus promised when He said, "I came that they might have life and have it abundantly" (John 10:10).
What Does Abundant Life Look Like?
Jesus contrasts His mission with that of the enemy, who "comes only to steal and kill and destroy." While Satan's agenda is destruction, Jesus offers something radically different—not just existence or survival, but abundant life. This Zoe life, as it's called in Greek, means living fully alive regardless of our circumstances.
Living fully alive looks like flourishing in our careers, relationships, and families. It means experiencing freedom from the things that sabotage our lives and hold us back. It's about showing up every day on mission and on purpose for the calling God has placed on our lives.
God's Mission Statement: Healing and Freedom
When Jesus began His public ministry, He chose a powerful passage from Isaiah 61 to declare His mission. Standing in the synagogue of His hometown, He read: "The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor."
After reading this, Jesus made a stunning declaration: "Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing." He was announcing that the year of jubilee—the Old Testament practice of debt forgiveness, slave liberation, and fresh starts every 50 years—had arrived in His person.
How Do We Access This Freedom?
The path to freedom isn't mysterious or complicated, but it does require intentional action. Here are three essential steps to walking in the freedom God offers:
Step 1: Pay Attention to Your Attention
Second Corinthians 3:17-18 reveals a crucial truth: "Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom." Since the Holy Spirit lives within every believer, freedom is already available to us. But how do we access it?
The passage continues: "We all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another." The key word here is "beholding"—what we give our attention to shapes who we become.
In our modern world, trillion-dollar companies are competing for your attention because they understand its transformative power. If they can capture your focus and keep you scrolling, they can shape your desires and ultimately your life.
Scripture Before Screen
One practical way to reclaim your attention is to implement a simple rule: Scripture before screen. When you wake up in the morning, resist the urge to immediately check your phone. Instead, spend time in God's Word first. It doesn't matter if it's just one verse or an entire chapter—the key is consistency.
This practice is like stacking wood on a fire. Some mornings it might feel boring compared to the instant gratification of social media, but you're building something. Eventually, God will send the fire, and your heart will begin to burn for Jesus in a new way.
Step 2: Dig Up the Old
Jesus told a parable about a farmer scattering seeds. Some seeds fell among thorns and thistles, which grew up and choked the plants. He explained that these thorns represent "the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth" that choke out God's work in our lives.
All of us have thorns and thistles in the garden of our souls—patterns of sin, unhealed wounds, destructive habits, or unhealthy thought patterns that are choking out the abundant life God wants to give us.
We Don't Repeat Patterns Because We're Weak
Here's an important truth: We don't repeat destructive patterns because we're weak; we repeat them because we're wounded. Jesus came to heal the brokenhearted, but healing doesn't happen by avoiding our wounds. We heal by allowing the wounded healer—Jesus—to stand with us in our pain.
There is no thorn or thistle so great that Jesus can't heal it. There is no chain so thick that He can't break it. But we have to show up and do the work. As Philippians 2:12-13 says, we must "work hard to show the results of your salvation" because "God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases him."
This might look like joining a care group, confessing your struggles to a trusted friend, getting into counseling, or simply prioritizing time in God's Word. The person God created you to be is waiting for you to grab a shovel and start digging.
Step 3: Make Way for the New
Freedom isn't just about removing the negative; it's also about making space for the positive work God wants to do in your life. Jesus promised that "rivers of living water will flow from within you" (John 7:38). He also compared the kingdom of heaven to a mustard seed that, though tiny, grows to overtake everything in the garden—not destructively like weeds, but transformatively.
Freedom Starts Small
The good news is that freedom starts small. It begins with one scoop of the shovel at a time, one morning in God's Word at a time, one day of choosing truth over lies, one day of saying "I'm not going back to that habit."
You don't need a complete life overhaul in one day. God can work with just one mustard seed of faith. Give it time, and the river of life will start flowing, changing every area of your life.
Life Application
This week, take inventory of your life and identify one specific area where you need God's freedom. Maybe it's a destructive habit, an unhealed wound, or simply the need to refocus your attention on God rather than the distractions of this world.
Choose one practical step you can take today—not tomorrow, but today. It might be downloading a Bible reading app, scheduling a counseling appointment, confessing a struggle to a trusted friend, or simply putting your phone in another room when you wake up so you can spend time with God first.
Remember, the glory of God is revealed when we live fully alive. In this new year, God is offering you a fresh start, a year of jubilee. The question is: Will you grab a shovel and start digging?
Questions for Reflection:
What is currently competing for your attention and potentially choking out God's work in your life?
What "thorns and thistles" in your soul need to be uprooted this year?
What one small step can you take today to make way for God's transforming work in your life?
How would your life be different a year from now if you consistently gave God your first and best attention each day?
Setlist
WFC Lenexa + WFC Anywhere
I Thank God - Maverick City Music
Great Are You Lord - Passion
Reckless Love - Cory Asbury
A Thousand Hallelujahs - Brooke Ligertwood
WFC Speedway
Holy Spirit Come - Patrick Mayberry
I Speak Jesus - Charity Gayle
Graves Into Gardens - Elevation Worship
It Is Well - Bethel Music
Be sure to save our Spotify Worship Playlist, updated weekly with the upcoming Sunday’s set!
