Do you ever feel stuck in your journey to God? You desperately want to believe that God delivers, but you are still stuck in sin. Dear friend, you can be set free from sin! You are not stuck in Egypt like the Israelites. It’s time to find your freedom in Christ.
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My God Delivers
I remember the day after my wedding like it was yesterday.
My husband had an idea to pick our oldest up and spend the entire day together. If you have read any of my previous posts, you’ll gain the context that she is my “stepdaughter.” I use those quotation marks with full intent because if you have seen the way she sets her money to an even amount and tells some pretty cheesy jokes you would just say she is my kid.
Anyhow, considering this substantial change for all of us, we took all the practical steps to spend just as much time together as we could. We were now a family. A triumph trio if you will.
In true Brooklynite (my made-up word) fashion, we made our way to Coney Island and took our time eating hot dogs, walking along the pier, and of course getting on the rides that were only for the brave at heart. Two words you guys: The Cyclone. It was the definition of a picture-perfect day.
But as with all pictures, it began to fade with time and then turned into what I now define as one of the most terrifying moments of my 1-day old married life.
Our oldest being my ride buddy, picked a ride she deemed as “fun.” Again, I use quotation marks with full intent. Being the wicked cool stepmom I am, I asked no questions about it and handed our tickets to the gentleman at the start of the line. Another gentleman strapped us in pulling the safety bar down. “Enjoy, ladies,” he says.
I must interrupt briefly to just say that I should have questioned why I was being so thoroughly protected by a bar and seatbelt on a children’s ride. In hindsight, it must’ve been the newlywed bliss that blinded me.
Long story short? The ride was going well at one point. ONE POINT. As soon as I had the thought that I knew what to expect, well in short, the “children’s ride” almost killed me.
Dramatic, you ask? I care not. In the quickest second, I was whipped around as fast as I could say, “I hate you, kid.” While I did not utter those words to my child at the time, my eyebrows and girlish screams relayed the message for me. On instinct, I grabbed the bar as tight as I could, embracing it with all my strength. This bar would be the barrier between myself and death.
That day brings me laughs now. Again, that is now. Yet it is a true description of the life I lived prior to the grace of God conquering all of it.
Delivered by God and Addicted to Sin
It reminds me of a people who were delivered by God, relentlessly, yet when the times began to roll and sway, they simply forgot all that He had done. (Numbers 11). More than that, it was as if His character was on display and tarnished by their own sinful inclinations.
Frazzled by idiosyncrasy. In the thick of it, they longed for Egypt. The place where they had been enslaved and bruised. The place from which God Himself had delivered them. This was the place God presented the miraculous through Moses. Rather than longing for Egypt, or God, they were longing for familiarity. For control, wishing they had a grip of God’s Eternal Lordship over their present and temporary circumstance.
The truth is, I can visibly recognize this in myself.
Some days it’s almost hard to detect because I’ve covered that pride with “good intent.” My own addictions are like the bar I was trying to grip so tightly. For my life, for my safety and for solace. It was the safety net that I needed to remain underneath me when all else failed. When I say all else, I really mean God.
Addictions are words we occasionally like to flippantly use as a replacement word for sin. Addiction almost has a ring to it, a nicer tune that makes us seem more like the victim than anything else. I must reiterate that addictions seem to perfectly land on the platform of our wicked hearts, upstaging all other truth.
We are addicted to sin and our deepest motivation is not to fall at the throne of grace, but really at the grips of desire. We cower under these things, under our trauma and shame and become trapped under its weight. We need to stay rooted in Christ but instead we fall prey to sins expectation dragging ourselves through the mud and the muck every single time.
Our Sin does not Love Us
Our sin does not love us. Our sin requires us to sacrifice ourselves. Our families, our health, our mental sanity, our emotions. It asks much of us because it does not give, it only takes. Robs and steals. we need to be set free from sin! Once again, God delivers.
Anger demanded more of me than I could give. Eating disorders drained more than my weight. Promiscuity promised me validation but never came through. Anxiety and depression played like Jekyl & Hide but never showed me the other side of daybreak. Suicidal tendencies and self-harm gripped at my own skin but never conquered my flesh. Drugs promised euphoria but never joyful satisfaction.
All these things were mere mirages, figments of comfort but never grace. My childhood trauma gripped my hand bringing me back to the little girl who hid under her covers, covering her ears but never embraced me. My idols asked of me, robbed from me, pushed me to make an oath that itself did not keep.
Set Free from Sin
Yet there is ALWAYS GOOD news.
In the case of Christ?
He IS the ultimate sacrifice.
God delivers you and sets you FREE from sin!
Do not white knuckle something that is dead and was conquered 2,000 years ago. Don’t add a safety net where God put nails and crucified it. Don’t add a semi-colon where God put a period and said, “IT IS FINISHED.”
Later, knowing that everything had now been finished, and so that Scripture would be fulfilled, Jesus said, “I am thirsty.” A jar of wine vinegar was there, so they soaked a sponge in it, put the sponge on a stalk of the hyssop plant, and lifted it to Jesus’ lips. When he had received the drink, Jesus said, “It is finished.” With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.
John 19:28-30 NIV
There is nothing else to add or gain. He perfected it because He alone is perfect. I don’t know what the face of your sinful addictions looks like. I don’t know what traumas have unfolded in your life, but I do know that you will collapse under the falsehood that you can satisfy your soul with physical things.
Christ died for your freedom.
I 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 NIV
Christ died to give us eyes to see what our idols truly are. Our idols will never sacrifice more for us than Christ ever has. They will never redeem us. Forgive us. Christ has already done that, once and for all. The truest description of love is perfectly described in this verse:
“But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
Romans 5:8 NIV
God Delivers us with Christ
Our flesh will always tell the fable of how we can love and romanticize our cheating idols but, in the Gospel, God pursues us first. God delivers us deeply with Christ’s love. Lavishly loves and forgives the one who has committed deep adultery against His established covenant. Us.
He is the expression of the faithful husband who lays His life down, sacrificing His Son for our adoption. Bridges the gap, embraces us, and pulls us into the tabernacle. He is the One who desires our hearts but also grants us the transformation to love Him more than anything else. Our idols want us to do more and be more but in scripture? It is already done. For His glory and honor and for your good.
I pray you see the picture that all comes together seamlessly, painted with truth and colorful splashes of His goodness. The masterpiece that has come together at the cross, where we see the depiction of our tainted sin for what it is in the face of a beautiful redemption. Splotches of love and mercy form the timeless art of His pursuit.
May you know this above all else, in the face of all things that have gripped you tightly. Rest assured in knowing that freedom has been purchased. May you spend every second in the embrace of His grace alone. May you bask in the freedom of this truth. Amen.
If you have enjoyed the scripture passages we have talked about, feel free to download our scripture passage notecards! You can print these off for your own use. The link will take you straight to a dropbox download.
A Little More about Lisette
My name is Lisette Medina, I am a brooklynite wife & momma simply seeking to share the Gospel. I’m finding joy in the ebb and flow of autoimmune disease, autism, and just this thing we call life. I also like to think I’m pretty cool. 🙂
You can find Lisette at her blog called Quickly Reminded.