Freed to Serve
Devotions with Pastor Jason Lim

We often hear the phrases “Follow Your Heart” and “If It Makes You Happy” being used as slogans to encourage people to pursue a dream. I believe the underlying meaning is really a desire for freedom, freedom to pursue what they want, whenever they want, in whatever manner that pleases them. However, the Bible gives us a different idea of true freedom.

“But now you are free from the power of sin and have become slaves of God. Now you do those things that lead to holiness and result in eternal life.” (Romans 6:22) This verse reveals the paradox of freedom and a
principle of life: we are all created with a need to serve someone. Philip Brooks said, “No man in this world attains to freedom from any slavery except by entrance into some higher servitude. There is no such thing as an entirely free man conceivable.”

The paradox is that if you really desire true freedom, you must pursue service to God. True freedom is not doing what you want; it is doing God’s perfect will. You are truly free from yourself and from your sins if you enslave yourself to God and Jesus Christ. You have been graciously set free from sin and called unto liberty, but do not use it as an excuse for sin or a license for disobedience. Don’t use it as a reason to give
in to the sinful temptation, but as you are set free, serve God and serve others. When before we served sin, now we can choose to serve righteousness.

Prior to your salvation, you could not choose to serve anyone else but sin. You were slaves to it and totally helpless in it. But when Jesus came into your life, He set you free and now for the first time, you can say, “God, I can live in true freedom. I can live for You.”

This is the paradox of freedom: to be truly free, we need to serve God, serve righteousness, and serve one another.