There was a time in my life when my daily planner influenced me more than my daily devotional. In fact, I often refer to my old-school, pen-and-paper planner as my “other bible” because I would be lost without it! Every aspect of my life from kids, to work, to household management, to ministry, to taxes are tightly fastened in that binder.

It was a time when my “To Do” list lorded over me in such a way that I became unavailable to the nudges of the Holy Spirt. I was only as free as my daily checklist dictated.

Then I finally realized from those same Spirit nudges, you are only as free as that which masters over you.

Whatever masters over you also controls you, sways you, influences your decisions, limits your availability, and challenges your emotions.

My master was my planner and it’s freedom was defined by expectations. Expectations of myself and others. 

What masters or lords over you, causing you to think, act, speak, work, post, and feel a certain way?

Are you controlled by negative thoughts?

Your past?

Your pain?

Your fears?

Your planner?

Your cravings?

Your longings?

Your relationships?

Your religious rituals?

Your political ideology?

Your “shoulds” and “ought to”?

Your freedom is both defined by and the direct result of the decisions you make about whom or what you serve. 

And freedom always comes with the cost of sacrifice and service. Ask any Veteran.

You are only as free as the boundaries set forth by that which or that whom masters over you.

King David fully understood from whom his freedom came when he cried out in Psalms 16:2, “I said to the Lord, “You are my Master! Every good thing I have comes from you.””

King David knew the protection and provision granted within the boundaries of service to His Lord and Master. He knew, by the sparing of his own life, that every good thing comes from above. He knew the freedom that comes with surrender to the God who saves.

Jesus, from the line of David, became our Lord and Master in the flesh. He came to purchase our freedom from sin. He came as the Living Word of God so that the truth would set us free. He came to break the chains of our negative thoughts, our past, our pain, our fears, and other’s expectations and to set the prisoner within us free.

Master is not a dirty word when you can trust the One you serve.

Lord is not a title to fear when we love because He loved us first.

Freedom only sets you free when it’s founded in truth and motivated by love.

Jesus is both, Lord and Master, and he comes in the name of love, mercy, and grace to impart true freedom.

His boundaries are set forth for protection, His commandments are set forth for relationship, and His sacrifice is set forth for us to choose whom we will serve. God or man? Spirit or self-imposed expectations? Truth or relativism?

My friends, choose this day whom you will serve. Read Galatians 5. Ask Jesus to lead you through the gateway of truth that is the cross into a freedom founded in love and trust.

Trust the freedom that was bought with a price on the cross of Christ.