What's Holding You Back?

We compete, and we compare, and we strive, and we put terrible pressure on ourselves to “keep up.” But the good news is that we were not made to keep up. We were made to be free . . . 

All my life I ran the hamster wheel of achievement and acceptance. As a child, I earned love by working hard to fit in. At church, I earned love by memorizing verses. At school, I earned love by pleasing teachers. The God I was striving for was rigid and lifeless and seemed far away. Although I believed He was real, I wasn’t convinced He was good. So I went on trying to be the best version of myself, hoping maybe I’d catch a glimpse of His approval. Legalism shaped me, driving my performance.

If someone had asked me in my youth why I was doing all this striving, I wouldn’t have had an answer. It took decades for me to peel back the layers of bondage and realize that freedom only comes when we know God is enough—when He is our everything. When He is our peace and our strength, joy, and rest. Our provision, healer, hope, fortress, shelter, strong tower, and Father.

Freedom reveals everything good is from Him and by Him and for Him. Every breath we take, every person we encounter, every word we utter is all an expression of a freedom where God dwells in us and loves through us!

When we look at the pages of Scripture, it’s clear that God intends for us to “live as free people” (1 Peter 2:16) and that “it is for freedom that Christ has set us free” (Galatians 5:1). Furthermore, Jesus declared a “kingdom come”—a kingdom of complete freedom—“on earth as it is in Heaven” (Matthew 6:10), and Paul teaches this kingdom power lives in us (see Romans 8:11). This means that even in our feeble weakness, if we claim Christ and his resurrection, somehow we are God’s agents who carry freedom to the world.

So, given all these passages in the Bible, why do we fail to truly experience this type of freedom in our lives? We want to see the Jesus who calms the storm, frees the oppressed, heals the sick, and raises the dead (see Luke 8:22–56). Yet here we are, living our lives one small step at a time, feeling so powerless to loosen the chains that bind us, let alone helping others live in freedom.

In her new book and Bible study, ''You Are Free'', Rebekah Lyons will walk you through her journey into this kind of freedom and explore what the Bible says true freedom looks like for our lives. We will wrestle through tough realities, dig deep into the Scriptures, and answer questions—some easy to answer and others painful. So, lets not leave nothing on the table. No stone unturned, no whispers unspoken, no secret still hidden. This freedom thing is costly but worth it.

Sign up for the 'You Are Free' online Bible study here and get free study resources.

Credit: Rebekah Lyons