Freedom in Glory Choices
My sister and I first celebrated our nation’s freedom on carpets of soft grass with sparklers in each hand. We wrote our names in cursive against a landscape of lightning bugs and stars, as echoes of laughter resounded louder than distant firecrackers. Over the years, as methods, people, and places for commemoration changed, gratitude, appreciation, and understanding grew.
Liberty, fought and won for a fledgling country, now brings tears as sacrifices on battlefields, almost 250 years ago, reflect principals, ideals, and values. These early patriots made choices for themselves, their families, and future generations. We cannot weigh their immeasurable sacrifices, count costs for death, or scale love.
Each day we live as citizenry of this country, in freedom, because of the altruism and patriotism of others. We remember them as we lift flags, visit our capital, and instruct children in history.
We also live each day as citizens of heaven, in freedom, because of the sacrifice and death of Christ. We remember his love through communion and demonstrate faith through obedience as we lift eyes, attend churches, and teach children his doctrine.
God’s loyal patriots wage battles against evil, seek His wisdom, learn Biblical teachings, pray, and follow guidance from the Holy Spirit. On God’s soil, we become grounded in His truths and discern His presence.
Sometimes we retreat, and He covers us with mercy. We move forward, and He delights over us. Either way, He’s with us through each choice, movement, and event.
Spiritual freedom provides clear lenses to inform choices which point to God, not self, reflect His grace, instead of our pride, and showcase His glory, not our narcissism. Freedom provides a landscape to make glory choices.
Glory choices don’t reveal themselves by accident. They emerge from preparation, on freedom’s foundation where feet, alive in Christ, tread.
Freedom is not a concept. It’s read in the Declaration of Independence and viewed on a wooden cross and crown of thorns. On July 4th, we celebrate independence from England and freedoms earned. Christians celebrate dependence on God and freedoms unearned.
As we measure our lives against the life of Christ, perspective changes. We long to glorify God and strive to seek Kingdom goals, not personal ambitions. We aim to show obedience to His will, not our pleasures. Expanded faith and wisdom prompt increased joy in fulfilling God’s agenda, not gratification in attaining our desires.
Glory choices made in life’s ordinary mundane reveal belief in the extraordinary sovereign God. Through innumerable decisions, choices become clearer upon examination of end results which either magnify self or glorify God.
In relationship with God and placed in right posture before Him, we understand we accomplish nothing without Him.
“I am the vine; you are the branches. The one who remains in me and I in him produces much fruit, because you can do nothing without me.”
-John 15:5 CSB
As we mature and remain in God, glory choices become less defined in transactional events and more displayed in qualitative characteristics. We choose love over hate and selflessness over selfishness. We choose to display humility, patience, forgiveness, generosity, kindness and more, because we choose to glorify God.
We might battle pride, selfishness, and other unsettling human attributes, but when we align hearts, minds, feet and hands to Jesus, we orient ourselves with him, his traits, and his glory. Focus on him removes fixation on self and only then can we begin to understand and express spiritual freedom.
Spiritual freedom displays an eternal landscape where God writes our names in His Book of Life. As the heavens declare the glory of God (Psalm 19:1), we declare Him through sparkling glory choices, which recognize Christ’s victory over death, illustrate God’s love for His people, and celebrate our rescue from sin and death.
