True Freedom

This week, Callie Carson, daughter of the late Freedom Challenge founder Cathey Anderson, writes our guest blog on what it means to be truly free

Sing, Daughter Zion; shout aloud, Israel! Be glad and rejoice with all your heart, Daughter Jerusalem! The LORD has taken away your punishment, he has turned back your enemy. The LORD, the King of Israel, is with you; never again will you fear any harm. On that day they will say to Jerusalem, “Do not fear, Zion; do not let your hands hang limp. The LORD your God is with you, the Mighty Warrior who saves. He will take great delight in you; in his love he will no longer rebuke you, but will rejoice over you with singing,” Zephaniah 3:14-17

“I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” John 16:33

In the loneliest times of the day when my heart is heavy with grief, the Lord gently reminds me that he calls me, “Daughter”. When I get caught up in the unknowns of this life, my soul is quieted when I hear the Lord say, “Do not lose heart, I have overcome the world.”

Freedom for all

Our God, Jesus Christ our Savior, has overcome the world. Friends, HE HAS OVERCOME THE WORLD! He did not overcome the world by coming as a political figure to condemn or control the world. No, he took the form as a man. He came as a Son, obedient to His Father and willing to die for all. And through His death and resurrection he brought freedom and life to all who receive.

This week, I needed to be reminded that my freedom is not something given to me by anyone else. My true freedom is in the powerful name, identity, and reality of Jesus Christ. That my identity is in Him and, “I (Callie) have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” (Galatians 2:20)

God working through us

Here is the thing; the freedom of the women and children we climb for matters. It matters that we fight for them, care for them, and aid them in finding healing and restoration. But we do not do this in our own strength. It comes out of the overflow of identifying ourselves so much with Christ that it is not we who live but Christ who lives in us and through us. That is the truest form of freedom anyone will ever find.

It is God that will bring freedom to the thousands of women and children being exploited throughout the world. But what an honor that God desires to live and breathe and work through me. What an honor that I can love, because He first loved me. What an honor that my hands need not lay limp but can lift toward heaven and praise the Mighty Warrior who saves because He takes great delight in me and rejoices over me with singing.  

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God.” John 3:16-21