Fearless Freedom

Although this blog's primary purpose is to be a photo journal of the every days of our family, from time to time I may express some of my thoughts or struggles here. A few posts ago I shared what God is teaching me about kindness. Wouldn't you know it that the very next morning our dear pastor preached a sermon on the mortification of sin in the context of our adoption in Christ from Romans 8? The Holy Spirit was already working on this in me, so I was a near basket case during the sermon. I literally felt like sobbing out of recognition that God was speaking through Doug directly to me. Only the Spirit could have orchestrated all those thoughts and scriptures together, so I knew it was his voice. The whole first half of the sermon was about putting sin to death in our lives, stamping it out, not for our salvation but because of it. This was exactly what God was speaking to me about my lack of kindness when things were not so easy. I was hearing exactly what I was already thinking, but then I got the big whammy. The point in Doug's sermon that nailed me was that the believer will have fearless freedom because he has received the Spirit of adoption. My mind latched onto that phrase: fearless freedom. This is the heart of "his kindness leads us to repentance." I began to wonder if I was walking in that fearless freedom or was I still acting like an orphan in some ways, settling for my own type of orphan behavior, acting like anyone else would in a tough situation. But I'm not anyone else, I have been bought by the precious blood of Christ. I have an obligation to put to death the deeds of the flesh. Even more, I began to wonder if I was instilling that fearless freedom in my own adopted daughter, or all my children, for that matter. Is my kindness leading them to repentance and obedience? Are they fearlessly free to love and obey? Is their obedience out of joyful gratitude and love or just fear of consequences? It was really transforming. I have been ruminating on it for a few weeks now and it still resonates. I am humbled by the kindness of my God again as he leads me with those cords of kindness. Like the contemporary song says, "He's not finished with me yet."