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I read a statement the other day that really caught my attention. “You’re not free until you’ve been made captive by God’s supreme plan for your life. Only those who are bound to Christ are truly free. In His will is our peace.”

When we first read that it sounds like a complete contradiction. How can freedom be a result of captivity? Each of us has a plan for our own life…what we want to accomplish, what we want our kids to become, what age we want to retire, etc. There is nothing wrong with that, and I believe we should prepare for the future. However, when we live only to fulfill the plans we’ve made, we become bound by our plans and ourselves. There must come a time in our lives when we submit our will to God's will. 

“I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me:” Galatians 2:20

What Paul is saying to us here is that there comes a time when, in order to truly live our lives freely, we must submit to God and allow Him to have complete rule over our lives. True freedom comes in knowing that God’s will is best and acting on that knowledge by living for him instead of for ourselves. I am sure you remember Jesus praying in the garden just before His crucifixion, “Saying, Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done.” Luke 22:42

All of us are interested in having the cups of sorrow, discouragement, suffering, etc. removed from our lives and living free from these hardships. BUT not many are interested in “nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done.” When we get to the place where we truly desire God’s will for our lives more than our own, we have come to a place where our captivity to God results in freedom from ourselves. 

Those who can see God’s hand in everything can leave everything in God’s hands. When you have nothing left but God, then for the first time you become aware God is enough! 

“God created the world out of nothing, and as long as we are nothing, He can make something out of us.”

-Martin Luther