Does life without God look like freedom to you?
Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen. – Romans 1:24-25
Does life without God look like freedom to you? That was the question posed to me in my bible study today. The notes went on to say, “Defiant freedom from God will confine you forever. There is no worse slavery than slavery to sin.”
People tend to believe lies that reinforce their own selfish, personal beliefs. Today, more than ever, we need to be careful about the input we allow to form our beliefs. With the internet, music, movies, and shows often glorifying sinful lifestyles and unwholesome values, we find ourselves constantly bombarded by attitudes and beliefs that are totally opposed to the Bible. God gave us the Bible as the standard of truth.
One of the clearest indicators of a society or person in rebellion against God is the rejection of God’s guidelines. Most people instinctively know when they do wrong – but they may not care. Some will even risk an early death for the freedom to indulge in their desires now. I know it’s wrong, but I really want it, they say; or I know it’s dangerous, but it’s worth the risk. For such people, part of the “fun and excitement” is going against God’s law, their own community’s moral standards, common sense, or their own sense of right and wrong.
Those actions, which seem to be freedom of choice, always lead to slavery. The enemy prowls around looking for opportunities to devour us and he uses our own selfish desires and willful disobedience as bait.
Rather than seeing the Bible as a rule book of what not to do, we can see it as God’s protective boundaries for what will provide the best possible life.
God gives us the free agency to choose along with His knowledge of what is best for us. If we are honest with ourselves, we all know how it feels to be trapped and imprisoned by our sinful desires and wrong choices, which in answer to today’s question, never looks or feels like freedom.
