In hindsight, yesterday’s article about July 2nd vs July 4th and Intent vs Action, would have been better served to be posted today, but I wrote it and scheduled it to post like six months ago, before I started writing the devos on Tuesdays. Now here we are on Tuesday, July 2nd, and I have nothing else to say about the drafting of the Declaration of Independence, and certainly nothing else to say that would make a spiritual application.
I suppose I could talk about how being a Christian is all about bucking trends, breaking against stereotypes, and, as Paul put it, refusing to conform to the world (Romans 12:2). Being a Christian, necessarily, means you look and act differently from the world around you. The first week of July is a great opportunity to illustrate that, seeing as how most of our American peers are talking about independence and freedom, when those ideas are antithetical to Christianity. Oh sure, we have freedom from sin, but putting it that way only expresses half the thought. Jesus died to set us free from Satan… but to what end? He set us free so that we would, in turn, make ourselves slaves to Him.
Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness.
(Romans 6:18)
In a couple of days, people are going to be shooting off fireworks to celebrate their independence. I’ll be among them, enjoying the festivities. I might even eat a hot dog. At the end of the day however, I am not a free man. I am not independent. That’s the last thing I want to be. Put me down in the “decidedly dependent” category. I choose to serve Jesus. I made the decision to be His slave. Where He leads, I will follow. I need Him. I count on Him. I rely on Him.
I am dependent on Him, and happily so.
~Matthew