The history of God’s people strongly revolves around ideas of captivity and freedom, stemming originally from the time that the ancient Jews spent in Egypt as slaves. Eventually, they were freed from their servitude, “carried on eagles’ wings” from Egypt and into the promised land of freedom.
The apostle, Paul continues this way of thinking in the New Testament as he describes those who aren’t believers as ‘slaves to sin’ and those who are, as having found freedom in Christ.
Many people have testified as to the ways in which their lives held them captive before they came to know freedom in Jesus. Whether from addiction, abuse or coercion there are those who have experienced the captivity of demonic strongholds over their lives, their families or sometimes even in the churches they’ve attended.
In such situations it can seem that freedom is just a pipedream, but we know that if we trust in Christ, freedom isn’t just a dream. Freedom is our future.
How then do we as Christians go about seeking this freedom or seeking to help others find it? This is something that requires much wisdom.
My very human mentality is to use or suggest a strategy that seems logical and sensible. But the God I know doesn’t play that way. He loves to revel in reversals, pull out unorthodoxy, make everything seemed stacked up against you… then effortlessly pop the balloon just when you least expect it.
While I’m yet to work out why exactly he likes this style so much, I know this is how He rolls. Logic and ‘common sense’ just don’t float His boat.
And whilst I don’t understand it, I can still trust that:
The foolishness of God is wiser than man’s wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man’s strength.
And whilst this may make things seem upside down, back-to-front and completely out of line with his plans and purposes, I can still remember that:
“My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the LORD. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”
When Abraham Lincoln declared that African American slaves were free – aka The Emancipation Proclamation – they did not gain their freedom overnight. There were ongoing battles to be faced in changing the way a whole society thought about a particular group of people. Many would argue that African Americans are still battling changing the way people think about them and their place in society.
Real, deep and lasting change doesn’t usually happen in a second.
Real change might take a day, a week or a year, but when we follow God’s strategy, ultimately, we can’t lose.
In reflecting on the Israelites’ entry into the Promised Land, Joni Eareckson Tada writes:
The book of Joshua, however, records that the Israelites followed God’s instructions to a T. In spite of the risks, in the face of ridiculous odds, they simply did as the Lord had said. The result was one of the most dazzling victories in Israel’s long history.
What is God asking you to do today that seems a little… unorthodox? Has the Commander of the Lord’s army presented you with a highly unusual battle plan?
Ignore the odds and obey.
In the long run, you can’t lose.[1]
Yours in unorthodoxy,
Alison
[1] Joni Eareckson Tada, ‘Day 9: Ignoring the Odds,’ 31 Days Towards Passionate Faith, Multnomah Books, 2006.