November 27, 2015:  Free To Be Me in Christ 

Daily Berry Patch Devotions in 2015 - Day 330  

Devotional Song:  … GO TO THIS LINK …   Please take the time to take in a video of Nichole Nordeman singing her song … Finally Free, … declaring the reality of our transformation and freedom in Christ.

Highlight Passage:   Jeremiah 17: 9-10 [NKJV] … USE THIS LINK …  
… Beware our self-conning, deceitful hearts!!!
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Highlight Context – Jeremiah 17:7-13 [NKJV] … USE THIS LINK  …  
… From God’s Prophet … the nature of man to go inward, rather than outward/upward, for help. 
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Reference Passage #1 - Romans 8:11 [NKJV] … 
11 But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you. 
 … Having been indwelled by the Holy Spirit upon conversion, we now have the power of Christ to surrender to His Spirit and overcome self, relying upon the empowering grace of God to set us free from sin choices.

Reference Passage #2 - 2nd Corinthians 4:3-4 [NKJV] … USE THIS LINK … 
… The lost simply cannot yield self to Savior.

Reference Passage #3 - 2nd Corinthians 5:17 [NKJV] … 
17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. 
 … No longer locked up in self … free to be the new me in Christ.

Reference Passage #4 - 1st John 3: 20 [NKJV] … 
20 God is greater than our hearts, and He knows everything. 
 … Easy to forget, isn’t it, … especially when we’re in trouble?

My Journal for Today:  Today’s Our Daily Bread author, Jennifer Benson Schuldt, used a personal story to illustrate how many, even Christians, can allow themselves to be imprisoned within their own deceitful hearts. The author wrote, On a business trip, my husband had just settled into his hotel room when he heard an unusual noise. He stepped into the hall to investigate and heard someone yelling from a nearby room. With the help of a hotel worker, he discovered that a man had become trapped in the bathroom. The lock on the bathroom door had malfunctioned and the man trapped inside started to panic. He felt like he couldn’t breathe and began yelling for help. … Sometimes in life we feel trapped. We are banging on the door, pulling on the handle, but we can’t get free. We need help from the outside, just like the man in the hotel. 

And then our ODB author gave her readers (me) an encouraging message, reminding any Christian that, IN CHRIST, we don’t have to be a victim of our own human frailties and fears. She did this by referring back to Jeremiah, who prophesied about the condition of the human heart (see the highlight passages above).

 No, as expressed in the truth of the reference passages (above), we can (and should) walk free from the imprisonment of self … and seek outside help, … the surrender to the empowering grace of God’s Spirit, dwelling in the newness of Christ in our hearts as born-again believers, … allowing us to be “Finally Free,” as Nichole Nordeman sings in the linked song for today.

 How about it, friend? Let’s not be locked up by our human fears and weakness. Let’s walk in freedom today with Christ!!

My Prayer Today:  Oh, dear Lord, … I am truly free to walk in Your grace today. AND I WILL!! … Amen  

Blogger Note:  Everyday during this year, my daily devotional blogs are influenced by the reading and study of the online devotional blog entitled Our Daily Bread, distributed online via email by RBC Ministries.  If you GO TO THIS LINK on the date of my blog, you can read/study the ODB blogs; or you can subscribe to the blog via email at that site.