- Freedom to choose your master
- Freedom to choose the lenses we use to see everyday life
- Freedom to choose how you will deal with each situation in your life
- Freedom to determine which instruction manual for life you will use
- Freedom to choose to change or stay the same
1. Freedom to choose your master
We’re all under the impression we can be our own master. Unfortunately, this possibility doesn’t exist. Built into our DNA by God is the need and purpose to worship and serve God. Satan realizes this design and uses it against us, thus sabotaging us by putting many impostors in front of us to catch our attention and worship. Some are concrete like alcohol, food, money, or people while others are more intangible like relationships, love, power, and productivity. God realized this temptation and warned us in the 1st commandment stating, “Thou shalt have no other gods before me.” Each moment of each day you get to choose who your master will be, God or some cheap impostor. To help sway your decision, remember who created the heavens and the earth and who will ultimately determine everyone’s eternal destiny, including Satan’s.
2. Freedom to choose the lenses we use to see everyday life
When we wake up each day, rub our eyes, and open them wide, we believe within a few seconds we are able to see the day clearly. From a physical standpoint, we really can see clearly, unless we have some physical eye issue. But to manage the day well, we need more than clear physical eyesight. The Bible says we need eyes that see and ears that hear the truth. You see, we all have limitations in our intellect, inability to know the future, and lack of understanding for the really big picture. Just like an 8-year-old doesn’t see a situation as accurately as a good parent does, similarly we have a limited viewpoint of situations God is orchestrating in our lives. But especially smudging of our lenses are our past experiences, baggage, emotions, and issues. We all have hurts, wounds, and misinterpretations form our past which distort and limit our ability to see life accurately. You can continue to use your smudged glasses or start to clean them day by day through self-reflection and assessment. We all choose each day whether we will use our me-centered distorted lenses or whether we will try to use God centered big picture lenses based on reality and truth. With clear lenses, life becomes much easier and freer to live.
3. Freedom to choose how you will deal with each situation in your life
Most people are more reactive in dealing with life situations. We feel we have no choice or how we responded came from a gut or a reflective core reaction without any thought, control, or strategic process in place. God designed us with a powerful mind, but since nobody really teaches us how our mind works or how to use it correctly, most of its activity in processing and responding to situations happens without intention and goes unnoticed. Paul teaches us to take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ and he wouldn’t call us to this endeavor if it wasn’t somewhat possible. Sure, most of the 80,000 decisions you’ll make today are pretty routine and are on autopilot, but a number of them are decisions that need a little bit more attention, intention, and strategic thought. God gave us free will, we are not His puppets or instinct/reflex driven robots. You will be amazed by the increased command you will have in situations as you just slow your mind down a couple notches and acknowledge you have choices in each situation.
4. Freedom to determine which instruction manual for life you will use
Anybody who designs and creates something has an awesome purpose and dream as to what their creation could ultimately be and do. In order for the purchaser or user to get the most out of the creation, the designer puts together an instruction manual so the user can maximize the functionality and purpose of the creation. When God designed and created man, he had an incredible purpose and fulfillment in mind for us, but He knew it would be hard for us to achieve this Promised Land living by just winging it on our own. So He gave us an instruction manual to guide and help us use our mind as best as possible to achieve the God-given potential He designed for us. Unfortunately, we often throw away His instruction manual and start to write and follow our own very flawed instruction manual and wonder why our life is falling apart in certain areas. Since the day I threw away my Instruction Book according to Dr. Andrea Chamberlain and started to use the BIBLE (Best Instruction Book for Living Everyday), my life has been transformed.
5. Freedom to change or stay the same
Many patients come into my office and one of the primary lies they have bought into is the belief that change is not possible. Believing they were either born this way, they are cursed because of some of their past mistakes, Christianity(or any religion) doesn’t work, they’ve tried but lack the skills to be somebody different, or this is just the brain chemistry they have and they are stuck with it has obliterated any hope of moving forward. But change is possible. The Bible has many stories of dramatic 180 degree turnarounds. Paul’s transformation from persecuting Christians to becoming the greatest missionary for Christ is one of the most extreme life changes. The same opportunity exists for each one of us, but we need to believe change is possible, then start to exercise the first four freedoms I listed above. Get off the hamster wheel to nowhere. Don’t be like the Israelites wandering in the desert for 40 years because of their lack of faith and inability to stick to God’s Instruction Manual but instead, get on God’s path to the Promised Land. Change, actually full transformation is possible and you can do it.