Freedom Day
Monday the 19th July 2021 was a landmark, known as ‘Freedom Day’. That’s because in England all the legal restrictions regarding Covid-19 were lifted.
Many celebrated, especially ‘clubbers’ who enjoyed a night on the town dancing and drinking into the early hours of Tuesday morning.
On the other hand, others were more cautious. I went into our local shopping centre and the majority of people I saw were still wearing masks, even though they did not have to do so by law.
We continue to live in interesting days! Covid cases are once again rising, many people have been jabbed and the big question is: ‘to mask or not to mask’?
I believe we all want ‘freedom’. Be that to party all night long, like the clubbers on Monday night, or in other areas of life, such as financial, health, speech or spirituality, to name but a few.
The Bible speaks about freedom. Take a look at this extract from a New Testament letter...
“It is absolutely clear that God has called you to a free life. Just make sure that you don’t use this freedom as an excuse to do whatever you want to do and destroy your freedom. Rather, use your freedom to serve one another in love; that’s how freedom grows. For everything we know about God’s Word is summed up in a single sentence: Love others as you love yourself. That’s an act of true freedom. If you bite and ravage each other, watch out – in no time at all you will be annihilating each other, and where will your precious freedom be then?”
God is about bringing everyone into freedom, which is fantastic news! But here it says that self-centred freedom is not actually a good thing.
Just imagine what the world would be like if we all exercised our personal freedom by doing what we wanted to do, when we wanted to do it!
The freedom God wants is not like that. I believe God wants you and me to be free from things that hinder us from being all that God intended for us to be.
These verses encourage us to use our freedom to serve others. So, what does that look like for you and me? It may mean wearing a mask in certain situations, because of other people.
God wants and can help you to be free! Let me encourage you to do all you can, to step into that freedom, and also to remember to look out for, serve and care for one another!
God bless
Gary Bastin - Hope Community Church leader