Free To Celebrate

You know those days when everything seems a little too messy? When everything you touch seems to explode? When you catch a glimpse of your reflection and can’t help but cry inside? When it seems like you failed yet another day?

Maybe for you, that day comes around now and then. But if you’re anything like me, maybe that day seems like every day.

There are moments we all feel worthless and can’t help but wonder why celebrate this life at all.

That is the exact lie the enemy loves to use on God’s children. He is subtle and charming and before you know it you’re living his lies.

The funny thing is, Romans 8:1 tells us the exact opposite of Satan. Paul wrote, “There is therefore no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.’

The day Jesus died, so did all our condemnation—all our worthlessness and shame. Those three simple words (It. Is. Finished.) obliterated all the lies we allow the enemy to tell us. When Jesus rose, so did we (His children)—pure, holy, and unashamed. This is the immediate inheritance we are given when God welcomes us into His family. We are given the identity of Jesus Christ Himself.

This very second I am pure, holy, and unashamed because Jesus is pure, holy and unashamed.

When God called me into His family, I was (and still am) set free from all sin. I am now more than a conqueror through Him who loved me (Romans 8:37). I am no longer a slave. I am free. This freedom and this price that Christ has paid is reason enough to celebrate and to shout my freedom anthem from the mountains for all to hear!

In her book, You are Free: Be Who You Already Are, Rebekah Lyons wrote, “One day I told Jesus I felt like my brokenness was too great. Maybe I’d thwart His plans for my life. Instantly I heard, ‘What if your purpose is for Me to love you?’ What could I say to that? No performing, no achievement, no amount of devoted effort can earn the love of Christ. It is an unconditional healing balm, a freeing balm.”

The days I feel like I’m not enough (and usually in a puddle of tears), my mom always quotes the lyrics of MercyMe’s song, Dear Younger Me:

You are holy

You are righteous

You are one of the redeemed

Set apart

A brand-new heart

You are free indeed

 

These words, typed out, seem simple. Yet, it’s so easy to forget them and neglect our identity in Christ. We are swayed by every wind of doctrine. Before we know what hit us, we are bound in the very chains we have been freed from. We no longer shamelessly celebrate. Instead, we throw ourselves a pity party.

It’s in these moments we need Christ most.

Fall on your knees, confess to the One who loves you most. Tell Him that you are stuck in chains and that you want to be freed. Praise Him for who He created you to be. The days I remember to fall on my knees before the throne of grace and recite God’s truths before Him, I begin to believe and live those truths instead of the enemy’s lies.

Easter is only days away. This year, let’s remember that it is completely F I N I S H E D. We can truly celebrate the Risen Christ this Easter. And the day after. And a year from now. The same God who rose from the dead is living in you and has given you His life and inheritance.

Alone, you are broken. In Christ, you are perfected.  Let’s celebrate this truth today and forever.

 By his wounds we are healed.

 

“You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for [God’s] own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies for Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have mercy.”

-1 Peter 2:9-10