It’s hard to balance your life if you don’t have the freedom to make choices. Whether your prison is physical, mental, emotional, or spiritual, Jesus Christ is the way to true freedom!
The theme of this year’s Women of Faith conference is Amazing Freedom. Freedom through Christ, freedom in our lives as women, freedom from our pasts, and freedom from our own fears and mental hindrances…
I attended June 22 and 23 in Cleveland, Ohio, with a friend’s church group. Over the next week or so, I will post a few entries about my time at the conference. Today I want to talk about some general tips I learned about being free.
1. The truth shall set you free, and the truth is in Christ!
Well, this isn’t something new that I learned, but it was strongly reinforced through the messages of the inspiring women and through the angelic voices of the worship singers.
2. Sometimes, as women, we allow ourselves to be imprisoned.
I don’t think anyone said this in so many words; it was more implied. Whether it be past abuse or current struggles, sometimes women assume they are the ones at fault when, in reality, it is the oppressor who is wrong (and who we need to get away from). We need to acknowledge that we are not to blame and that God loves us. Even further, you can forgive someone (setting both yourself and the other person free) without being victimized further. Conversely, sometimes we feel that we don’t deserve better, so we continue in negative patterns. This is something we need to work out within ourselves and with God, so that we can make a positive change.
3. We can change, and we can survive!
We are not doomed to be stuck in the same situation our entire lives. God has the power to change us and to change our circumstances. We need to trust in the Lord to do this. Other people have trusted in the Lord, and other people have succeeded in surpassing seemingly insurmountable obstacles. Abuse, cancer, loss, any pain you can imagine under the sun. We can survive, and we can get past it. Even more, Christ understands it all! Christ has been through more pain that any of us. He has known physical pain, and He has known emotional pain. He was betrayed, as some of us probably feel we have been by someone close to us. HE KNOWS what we are going through, and He is there to comfort us. He is also there to help us make changes through the guidance and support of the Holy Spirit. We really CAN do all things through Christ, and the first step is recognizing that very fact and giving ourselves over to it.
4. Humor can help change (and save) lives.
And some of these women speaking at the conference were absolutely hysterical! Anita Renfroe, in particular, gave laugh-out-loud performances that were so true and that also tied into positive Christian messages. Patsy Clairmont and Marilyn Meberg were also extremely funny, with their stories (sometimes sad and poignant, other times so funny you couldn’t sit still). Sometimes we just need to laugh in life or we’ll go crazy. Other times we need to cry. But we can’t bottle up our emotions; doing so will slowly kill us.
5. Fellowship and worship are the best medicine out there.
There is nothing else like being in a room with 12,000 other women, with every single one of you praising the Lord at the same time! In the middle of the song How Great is Our God, I had a moment of overwhelming emotion where I realized all of these thousands of people were praising our wonderful, glorious, amazing God! How wondrous that must have been to God’s ears. I felt blessed to be a part of that, and I pray that God hears and feels that love from every single one of us every single day for the rest of our lives. There’s no doubt in my mind that, at that very moment, singing that song, we were all in the absolute single one place where God meant us to be. How often can we say that in our lives? I wish I could say it every day and every moment; unfortunately, I let life get in the way. We all need to try a little harder NOT to let life get in the way of that gloriousness, that “in the moment” with God, that intense and unconditional, never-ending, perfect LOVE.
I would love to hear about other people’s experiences at the Women of Faith conferences, or even at other conferences. Or maybe you heard a particularly moving sermon yesterday in church? Please tell us about your favorite speaker or pastor or radio personality. All of these people are there to teach us and guide us, and God has blessed them with a message to share. How wonderful and glorious! Please share what you have learned about life and about God (and especially about FREEDOM). What does it mean to YOU to be free?
There is so much more that can be said (and, believe me, I’ll probably say it!), but right now I feel led to sit quietly and pray.
