July 4, 2024 Devo

July 4th, 2024

“It’s All About Jesus!”
“The Woman at the Well”
“So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.” – John 8:36 (NLT)
“Really and Truly Free”

Today the flags will fly around our country as we celebrate our Independence Day. On July 4th, 1776, the Second Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence to announce the colonies’ official separation from the Kingdom of Great Britain. That freedom wouldn’t come cheap. There would be a war to fight and years of hardship to endure. In the end, over 25,000 colonists lost their lives. Some in battle, some in captivity, and many from disease. Though that number doesn’t seem large, it represented about 1% of the population at that time. That would translate to over 3.5 million Americans dying in a war today. As the saying goes, “Freedom is never free.” We owe a debt today, not just to the colonists who fought, but to ALL the men and women who fought in wars since then to maintain that freedom. It is a debt that we can never repay.
We owe that same debt to Jesus. He came to set us free as well. Not freedom from the rule of another country, but freedom from the plethora of chains that we wear on our hearts, minds, and souls. Jesus came to set us free from sin. His death on the cross paid the price that we could never afford. His death brought us life. Sin is no longer our ruler. Hell is no longer our destination. The Son of God has set us free!
Christ sets us free from the attitudes and desires that enslave us. He does for us what we cannot do for ourselves. Many of us have discovered that we don’t have the willpower to overcome our addictions. Try as we may, we fail time and time again. We need a power that is greater than us. We need a deliverer who can come to our aid. As Paul said in Romans, “Who can deliver us from the body of death? Thanks be to God, Jesus Christ our Lord!”
Jesus gives us freedom from needing to be defined by others. Freedom from the allures and entanglements of our culture. Freedom from having to be afraid of death. The freedom Christ offers today is complete and all-encompassing. So fly your flag, eat your hot dogs, and enjoy the fireworks as we celebrate today. But don’t forget to say a prayer of thanks as well. Not just for the freedom that you have around you, but for the freedom that you have within you. Because if Jesus has set you free, you are really and truly free! That’s God’s Word for you today.