The Land of Freedom

“Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.” 2 Cor. 3:17

The ultimate promised land in all of our lives is the “Land of Freedom”. Each of us possesses property that enslaves us and causes us to live less than what God has prepared for us. Many times our captivity is linked with our emotions. Experiencing emotions are not wrong or sinful, but letting emotions consume and control our actions are wrong. God speaks throughout the Bible of uncontrolled emotions being laid down.

Any word or act that is not anchored in love is not of the Spirit – it is that simple. Love takes more work than any other emotion, but for God it is the essence of who He is and what He requires of us. He wants from us a higher way of living so we may experience an abundant life of freedom from anger, resentment, fear and loneliness. These emotions are natural on the earthly level and require the Spirit to rein them in when they become out of control. Uncontrolled emotions expose the gap between what we say we believe about God and what we truly believe.

We will not truly experience our promised land of freedom until we learn that any uncontrolled emotion, whatever they may be and however justified they seem, must be committed to God for His dealings. Most emotions are centered around the belief that someone has done something to hurt us, giving us the illusion that we have rights in our emotions.

I love what my minister said during a sermon sometime back. Anytime I feel the obstacle of my emotions detouring me from my journey to the promised land, I remember his words.

“It is the job of the Holy Spirit to convict, the job of God to judge and my job to love.”