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(Warning: these articles are not suitable for religious people with the narrow mind, they could change your life and break with all of your preconceived ideas of what the real meaning of the true freedom in Christ is and how to receive his Divine Grace. If you want your life to take a 180 degree turn and you want to walk in victory, then these series of articles are for you, if not please feel free to click the “X” located at the right upper corner of your screen.)
“It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.” Galatians 5:1
Stop thinking like a Slaves
Just mentioning the word “slavery” today, bring horrendous memories that many of us only know about due to the history books. It brings to our memory the suffering, mistreatments and the abuse of power that many slaves experimented in the past. Many would like to erase these memories from the history books, but it is impossible because it really happened and it teaches us many lessons.
Unfortunately, even in this day and age, we still see slavery and human trafficking at alarming rates. It is a real problem that could be happening very close to us and many times we don’t even notice it. It is a topic that has caught my attention in the last couple of months, and one thing that is very surprising is that many of the victims feel guilty and they don’t even want to call the authorities.
Analyzing this problem we can see how the human mind could be manipulated to the extreme of convincing a person and maintain that person in a state of slavery. Even having the opportunity to escape from the situation, they don’t do it. This is something that should not surprise us, but it makes us think on the harms and effects of the slave mentality in the human being.
Let me tell you a story; there was one time a man named Louis, he was born in a time when slavery was legal. His parents were sold as slaves in Africa and then transported in maritime ships to strange and far away lands. They didn’t know or understand what was going on, their education was limited in order to understand that they were going to be used as slaves to meet the demands of their owners.
For Louis parents, coming to an unknown land and without the resources or help to come out of their current situation was something terrible. They could not do anything but submit themselves to the mistreatment and long hours of work imposed by their owners. Years went by and Louis was born and in the middle of what they could call happiness, they celebrated his coming to the world. Louis parents got used to that lifestyle and in order to avoid mistreatment they make sure to comply with all the commitments and work they had.
Now, Louis was born in this environment, for him that was normal because he never knew anything else, he didn’t even knew the word “Freedom”. He grew up seeing his parents comply with all the heavy burdens imposed unto them and if they didn’t, they were punished and mistreated in front of his eyes. But even in the middle of all that, they always had something to eat. They used old and broken clothes, but they had something to wear. They lived in shacks, but they had a roof over their heads.
But one day, the government of that land decided that slavery was inhumane and conceded freedom to all the slaves. The government paid all the slave owners for the freedom of the slaves, but they made a mistake, and that mistake was that they didn’t teach the slaves how to be free. They simply let them go and they form communities of “free slaves”. Free in their flesh and bodies, but slaves on their mind, because they never experimented “Freedom”. The ones that had born in that condition, like Louis, didn’t know anything else but to be a slave and their minds were still on slavery mode.
Louis was feeling lost and decided to go back to the people we were his owners and ask them to let him come back, to be under their dominion because he felt that he was not able to survive as a Free Person. The said to him; “if the price for your freedom was already paid, why do you want to go back as a slave?” It didn’t make any sense.
Many of them were never able to come out of that slave mentality. Instead of improving their lives and enjoy their freedom and new opportunities, they became parasites of the system and the government, which by the use of social services kept them as slave of a system without an way out. Yes, even today we can see the results of the “Slave Mentality”.
Breaking the Chains
Not all of them stayed in that situation, many of them had an ample vision of that new opportunity in life and they were able to break the physical and mental chains. They were visionaries and took advantage and even in this day they don’t put excuses or use their race to justify their actions. They had understood that only by renewing your mind it is possible to rip away any root of slavery of body and soul.
Thanks to all the people that knew the value of the true meaning of Freedom, Louis was able to transform his mind and recognize that slavery was not the normal lifestyle. He recognize he was created as equal of those who were their owners and that he had the same rights of Freedom, just like any other human being. Once he was able to experience the true Freedom, never went back to his slave mentality.
Using these experiences as a base, let’s analyze how we can apply this to our spiritual life and in our relationship with God. At the beginning of this article I wrote a warning, but I imagine that if you read to this point is because you are interested or maybe just curious. It does not matter, let’s see and understand the true meaning of the Freedom in Christ, especially for all of us that want to comply with the purpose of God in our lives.
The real problem is that many people today live under “Religious Slavery”, yes, and I repeat, they are Slaves of their Religion. They are physically free, but their mind is on “slave mode”. It is very difficult for them to open their minds in order to understand or experience the “True Freedom” given to us by Jesus when he surrender his life for all of us.
But I asked, Why is it so difficult to accept our freedom? Is it that we can’t comprehend or is it that it can’t fit in our minds to fully understand the price of our redemption? Why do we want to submit ourselves to a set of rules and laws of what I can or can’t do, when Jesus broke with all of those preconceptions with his sacrifice?
I am going to let you think on those questions and I would love to read your comments on this matter, so feel free to comment or to ask any questions. On the second part of these series of articles, we will analyze those questions and more.
Gob Bless!
To be continued>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
J. Roig
