What it takes to get free is different from what it takes to live free.
Our call to be free is a pure gift of God’s grace and Christ’s sacrifice, yet liberation also means we have the free will to decide what we do as free people.
Living free is living for the Kingdom and honoring the goodness of God which dwells within us. If we nurture the spirit of our inner being, then we will always be ready to give light, go into holes, and participate in freeing others.
You, Lord, keep my lamp burning; my God turns my darkness into light. With your help I can advance against a troop, with my God I can scale a wall.
Psalm 18:28-29
Faith anchors our freedom. God acts when He sees that we will act for Him in love. He moves mightily when He knows we hope in His Word with all our might. It’s this beautiful gift of faith that God gave to and revealed in Moses, who grappled with the reality that his people weren’t wandering through the wilderness but being led by God to discover their purpose for the promised land.
Moses held nothing back from God; the depth and authenticity of their relationship is captured in Psalm 90, a vulnerable prayer and raw plea from Moses. With awe-filled praise and earnest confession, Moses acknowledges ignorant faults and disobedience, and he seeks the Lord’s power and grace to “teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.”
My roots find meaning in Moses’ message, as if ancestrally I am bound by its intent and alive because of God’s answer. The words of Moses’ mouth descend like dew1 and draw me deeper into the unity of one God and one Spirit, into the family of believers who desire to serve in the Lord’s harvest of salvation.
So when we appeal to God’s mercy to help us know better and do better, Moses shows us that the wilderness way is the place we are sent to pray, and God does not delay in teaching us the promise of freedom in Christ: an abundance of peace and the assurance of His love.
May the favor of the Lord our God rest on us; establish the work of our hands for us – yes, establish the work of our hands.
Psalm 90:17
- Deuteronomy 32:1-2 ↩︎
