Where To Find True Liberty

I wish to place a passage found in the book of Numbers before us, and gather some timely principals for our living today. “At the commandment of the LORD they rested in the tents, and at the commandment of the LORD they journeyed: they kept the charge of the LORD, at the commandment of the LORD by the hand of Moses.” (Num.9:23).

            A more lovely picture of absolute dependence upon the Almighty for divine guidance is impossible to conceive than that noted in the above passage. There was not a footprint or a landmark throughout that “great and terrible wilderness.”  They were wholly cast upon God for every step of the way; they were in a position of constant waiting upon Him. It would do us well to absorb the words of David. “Wait on the LORD: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the LORD.”  (Psa.27:14).   To the disobedient  mind,  and  selfish  will,  this  would  be unthinkable.  However, to a soul knowing, loving, trusting, and delighting in God, nothing  could be more deeply blessed with comforting pleasure. The question is, do we find  true  knowledge, love, strength, and  trust in God? If the answer is yes, then the  heart  will  delight  in  the  most  absolute  dependence  upon  Him.  If not, such dependence would be forsaken.

            The  person who thinks of self as one who stands by his or her own wisdom, experience, and strength loves to think of themselves independent. They love to keep in mind that they are “fancy  free.”  Their minds will have the thoughts: “I will do what I like to do, go where I like to go, say what I like to say.”  There is the failure of such people that they are really not free at all. They really are the slaves of satan. This wicked one holds such ones in terrible bondage. Satan has that person bound hand and foot  with  the glittering chains of sin, and they fail to see their true character.  They onward go in life vainly thinking themselves free because they can gratify their desires. Nevertheless, it is a melancholy delusion, and sooner or later found to be such.

            May the lesson be sounded loud and clear. . . There is no freedom save that which Christ has made available! (Jno.8:32-33). There is true liberty!!  It is ours by obedience to the Gospel of Christ Jesus. Then, and only then, are we freed from the bondage of hate, strife, backbiting, confusion, and all selfish desires that trouble our minds. There is where we can find true liberty!!

. . . .  Fred  House