“Dang it! I fell back into that trap again!” This is what I said to myself yesterday as I finally let the Spirit break into my thinking. I had gone back to living by my daily to-do list. I kept referring back to it each time I finished a needed task rather than listening to Jesus by asking, “What’s next?” And I wondered why my joy was being drained. Duh! This process of retraining our brains sure is a drag at times.
How about you? Is your daily life driven by rules (insert your to-do list) or by relationship? Having a set list of rules is much easier to live by than relationship. “Hey, I have the 10 Commandments. I’m doing okay. I’m not breaking any of them. I’m feeling pretty satisfied right now as I got my to-do list accomplished. ” Sure you’re not breaking them, but you’re breaking Jesus’ heart. Sure you got stuff done, but was it temporary satisfaction or the eternal kind?
If your focus is on your set list each day, it certainly can’t be on Jesus. Yet God wants to speak with us face to face (Deut. 5:4). Jesus desires that we listen to and follow Him (Jn. 10:27). How can we do that if we are facing and listening to our to-do lists?
Lists keep us in control. Are we not our greatest problem? Listening keeps Jesus in control. Isn’t He the source of all that need? Freedom from your drug of choice starts with who you listen to each day. Control or freedom, which one will you choose today?
“S”et Free No“W”ww

Who gets a vote in your life? Part of my Bible Impact reading this morning was about a deadly vote. Moses allowed the people to vote on the next step they should take on their journey to the Promised Land. This vote led to the decision to send out the spies (see Deuteronomy 1:22), which ended up in a death filled, joy robbing 40 year jaunt around the desert.
Who do you allow to vote about the choices you make – someone in your past or are they currently in your life? If Moses had only let God vote, the people would have enjoyed the largest juiciest grapes they had ever tasted.
This is why a healthy believer lives with a biblical worldview – listening to and following Jesus everyday everywhere. A healthy believer uses their biblical tools to screen out the voices/voters so they can hear from Jesus.
We all have decisions to make everyday, which leads to a vote. Should I do A or B? Who has voting rights in your life? Use your FREEdom process to listen to the only vote that should count – Jesus’.
Set “FREE” Nowww

“Yeah, but…” is one of the deadliest two word phrases in the English language; and, it doesn’t matter what comes after it either. The mindset that lies behind it has destroyed many a believer’s freedom.
“Yeah, what you’re saying is true, but…” “Yeah, I know the Bible stays that, but…” “Yeah, God can talk to me, but…” They’re all forms of the same negative anti-scriptural slavery thinking that keeps one on the sin-confession-sin cycle.
We are victors in Christ, not victims. “I can do everything through Christ who gives me strength.” What part of everything is not included in that truth? Jesus died again to give us freedom. He is living today to keep us in that freedom.
Your freedom will grow exponentially to the amount you reduce your “buts.” Isn’t time for a healthy biblical faith workout?
Set Fre“E” Nowww

“How long must I wrestle with my thoughts and every day have sorrow in my heart? How long will my enemy triumph over me?” King David wrote this in Psalm 13:2, but it describes perfectly how we all feel at times. The battle to retrain our brains is intense. We wish God would just solve it already. In doing so, however, He wouldn’t be doing us any favors.
He created us to rule with and for Him (Gen. 1:28) and is now preparing us to reign with Christ when He returns (2 Tim. 2:12). If He always stepped in and waved His perfection wand over our lives, He’d actually be crippling us. Where and when do you want to learn about how to make the choice to follow Him – the practice field or the big game? Off stage in your sound proof room or on stage before a sell out crowd?
Humanly speaking, I wish He would simply restart my brain. As a child of God who knows better, I know David’s answer is right on the money. “But I trust in Your unfailing love, my heart rejoices in (meaning the struggle is still raging) Your salvation. I will sing to the LORD, for He has been good to me.”
His God came through for Him in the past. He will come through for him in future as David praised and sang in the midst of the battle. We can too. Remember, when you’re weak He can be strong for you.
Set Free No“W”ww

You only control your choices, not others. This is an important truth to drill into your thinking.
We don’t know when Jesus’ knew that Judas was the one who was going to betray Him. Did He know when He first chose Judas to be one of the Twelve or much later? He definitely knew by the time John 13 rolls around. We also know He knew what Scripture had to say on the subject: He would be betrayed by someone in His group.
Knowing this, He could either waste His time worrying about who the traitor would be or spend His time listening to and following His Father everyday everywhere. He chose the later. And so can we. Jesus could only control His choices, not Judas’. And so can we.
The pathway to see our lives changed is to focus on our choices, which is the choice to live by the FREEdom process in the Spirit’s power everyday everywhere. Worrying about what others will or will not do only leads us to repeating the sinful behaviors that destroy our freedom.
Choose to use your biblical tools today. Remember, you only control your choices, not others’.
Set Free Now“W”w