My Freedom Day

 March 14, 2017 is #MyFreedomDay, a day dedicated to raising awareness of the problem of human trafficking. Horrific accounts from victims of human trafficking have been shared online on major news websites and people across the nation are sharing their ideas about how to solve this problem that steals the joy and innocence of childhood from young lives and replaces it with abuse and hate. The evils in this world are real, and peer pressure is sadly not the greatest of the troubles our children face.

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As you warn your children of the predators and villains and teach them to stay out of harm’s way, it’s easy to feel like so many of their freedoms are being stripped away at an early age. I remember only a few years ago when going out in the afternoon and being home before dinner was all that was required. I remember Halloween streets filled with strange looking characters, but not a worry that any would take those who were not their own. Now, fears prevail and children are not safe even on the brightest of summer days. Where is freedom in a world bound by so many evils?

Freedom, true freedom, is found in Jesus Christ. The freedom found in Christ does not come from the elimination of the problems that exist in the world that surrounds us, but from the removal of our sins from our souls:

"There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death." (Romans 8:1-2 NKJV)

We will never find freedom if freedom requires the removal of all the evil around us. But if we seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness (Matthew 6:33), we will find freedom from the guilt of our sins. Freedom from guilt, freedom from the death earned by sin (Romans 6:23) is the truest and realest sort of freedom that will ever exist. All the evils in this world will eventually be punished by God in righteousness (Romans 2:5-8), but while we live on this earth we can find freedom from our sins through Jesus Christ, which is the true freedom, the only eternal freedom. Freedom is found in the Lord Jesus Christ, and Him alone.