Good Morning Gorgeous,

It’s a brand new day. A fresh start. A new day to rise up and walk free.

Today all across America, we will celebrate our independence which got me thinking about freedom. I have written alot about freedom, and this morning I am sharing my writing from last 4th of July. I pray you are refreshed and renewed by your freedom in Christ today. As you celebrate our nation’s independence day, spend some time meditating on the freedom Christ has given to each of His followers. The closer I draw to Christ, the more free I am. Chains continue to break off of me, and I am more free this 4th of July than I was when I wrote this a year ago. And I pray that next year, I am walking in even more freedom!

As followers of Christ, we are a freed people. We are no longer held captive by the law, by sin, by guilt, by shame, by regret, by oppressive regulations, or by religious traditions. Praise be to our Good, Good Father, we are released and set free to be in close relationship with the Lord because of Jesus and His sacrifice.

Our freedom is ALL of those things AND yet still more. Jesus has not only released us from things that held us captive, yet He is also inviting us to total freedom from the heavy weights and burdens that we pick up either by choice or that were heaped onto us by the world. We carry heavy, heavy loads around all day long that keep us from feeling fully free even though we are free.

Have you ever felt like the weight of the world rested upon your shoulders? I have and I still do sometimes. Until I remember…. that weight… it’s NOT MINE to carry.

Most often when I am feeling a heavy burden that feels unbearable, if I look close at the source, it’s heavy because it wasn’t mine to pick up.

Many times we carry around responsibilities and burdens that belong to the Lord. Sometimes we also pick up the burdens of others, but today we will focus on giving back to the Lord what is His and only carrying what is ours.

Jesus boldly claims to give us a light and easy to carry burden. He promises that He is gentle and calling us into relationship with Him. Following Him was never meant to mean carrying loads too heavy to bear, He intended quite the opposite. He intended that we would let Him bear our burdens in trust and that we would follow in freedom.

These are Jesus’s words in The Message version:

When we are little children, we often feel as if our freedom is restricted by our parents and our teachers until….we grow up! Then we usually realize that as children we were more free than our parents. Free to play, free to daydream, free to be ourselves without the worries adulthood brings. In healthy family relationships, the parents carry the heavy burdens and the children are freed up to be children. If the children place their trust in their parents, then they can depend on them for their needs to be met, and they are free to run off and play lightheartedly without excessive burden or worry.

Here are Jesus’s words in the New King James Version:

We are the children of God, and He so desires that SAME lighthearted freedom for us. He wants to set us free from excessive burden and worry so that we can freely live out our God given purposes and destiny.

We were never meant to carry the full load of our households, our relationships, our children, our finances, our jobs, or anything else. We are designed to let Jesus carry the burdens, to let Jesus lead the way, as we follow Him in trust. We are definitely called to action and to lead our homes, yet we are called to lead others as we follow behind Him.

This dependence on the Lord, frees us up completely from worries and burdens that were never ours anyway!

You can cry out to Him this morning and ask Him to pick up any burden that is not God given. And friends that will be almost all of them, because He Promised that His burden was light and easy to carry!

When you meet with Jesus, you can be:

• Freed from unrealistic expectations
• Freed from worries over your home and everyone in it
• Freed from being in complete and total control
• Freed from having to know all of the answers
• Freed from lies the world has tried to get you to believe
• Freed from performance
• Freed from having to know how it will all work out
• Freed from the steering wheel
• Freed from the driver’s seat
• Freed from the fear of having to figure everything out

Freed, freed, freed, freed, freed, freed.

Freed from independence to dependence!

It is the opposite of what the world teaches us to be. Yet, the ways of heaven usually are opposite from culture. While we celebrate our freedom today and the independence of our nation, we can also celebrate our freedom to live in dependence on Jesus. This dependence actually frees us up from the burdens this world tries to heap all over us. So much so that we can barely shoulder it all, and often times we may find it hard to even rise up from bed and walk!

There is freedom available today. Jesus said, “Whom the sons sets free is free indeed.”

Today, you can lean into Jesus, breathe deeply, look Him in the eyes, and tell Him you are ready to trust Him. You are giving Him control of your entire life. He can be the leader of your heart, your home, your relationships, your children, your finances, your job, and your ministry. And in that total submission, you can find rest! Because no longer does it ALL have to fall completely on you.

The Lord is coming alongside of you gently and lovingly and saying, “Let me help you. Give me that awkward, sized heavy box full of worries that you keep shifting from one side to the other because you can barely keep a hold of it, and I’ll give you this smaller, easier to hold one. Its weight is evenly distributed, and it’s just your size. You will have no trouble carrying it all the way to completion.”

Gorgeous Friends, In our submission, we gain our freedom! Freedom to fully live and care for our families, homes, and workplaces without added worries that belong to the Lord.

Let Him go ahead of you, and He will fight the battles that arise. He will blaze the trail. He will smooth out the tough spots, and you will be amazed at how much you can accomplish even when you are not worrying and stressed by the burdens of life. The worry and the stress do not accomplish the purposes of God. Instead, they make the day ahead feel almost too big to bear. It’s scary handing it all over to Jesus, but as you trust, you will be free to fully live.

Dear Heavenly Father,

It takes faith and trust to give you our burdens that we are used to shouldering on our own. Lord, help us. Holy Spirit show us ways to release the heavy stuff and help us to trust that it’s all in the Hands of the One who created the Universe. Help us to walk as little children trusting that You are working it all out for our good. In Jesus’s name, Amen.

Have a Happy and Safe 4th of July!!

Praying that you Walk in Freedom Today,

Vanessa Lynn