“If The Son Sets You Free”

Good afternoon. We had a great Easter Blaster workout last Tuesday!  During the workout, I reflected on the devotion and proposed a challenge for the group which I am now expanding to the larger Cross Train community.  No, this is not Lent.  However, in our Tuesday devotion, we studied the passage of John 8:36:  “If the Son sets you free, you shall be free indeed.”  Christ came to set the captives free.  This is exciting news.  In order to receive the good news, we have to be willing to look at the bad news.  We are all in bondage to something.  The question each of us has to ask ourselves — what is my bondage?  Is it busyness, food, alcohol, shopping, your children’s success or schedules, pain of your past, lies that the enemy has spoken over you (you are worthless, unloveable, fat, etc).  Bondages take all different forms in our lives.  Many times they are so familiar to us that they go unnoticed.  Or, we just accept them with the phrase:  “that is just how I am”.

Jesus understands our weaknesses and our tendency towards bondage.  That is why he spoke the words of John 8:36.  You can be free!  You were not made for bondage.  You are not stuck.  You may feel stuck, but the truth is that Christ longs to set you free.  The Lord desires to change you from the inside out and he can do it through the power of the Holy Spirit.  Read that again.  You do not change yourself.  The Lord changes you through his power working in you.  In order to live free, you have to accept that power, activate it and live through it on a daily basis.

As an act of living free, Cross Train is issuing the challenge to give up sugar for one month.  This challenge will not only benefit our physical bodies but will also demonstrate that our flesh does not have mastery over us.  Instead, we can take control of the flesh and live in the Spirit.  As we discussed what it means to live free, it became very apparent that many of the women felt in bondage to sugar.

Will you join us for the one month challenge to give up sugar?  Do not replace artificial sugar for sugar.  Let’s take this opportunity to clean up our diets.  There are three questions we can take the Lord in prayer:

1.  What does it look like for me to give up sugar?
2.  What do you desire for my physical health?
3.  What would freedom look like in my life?

This challenge is not about legalism.  It is between you and God.  Please let me know if you will join us in this challenge.  I will send out devotions to support us on the journey!

May God bless you and set you free,

Brooke Holt
Certified Take Shape for Life Health Coach

We Do Not Lose Heart

So we do not lose heart.”                     2 Corinthian 4:16

One simple sentence but so often not the reality of our lives.  We do lose heart. If I am honest, I have been struggling with this a lot lately.  We put our house on the market 42 days ago.  It was not a decision we would have made had the Lord not moved us in a powerful way.  It was clear what we were called to do.  My husband and I immediately obeyed, worked fervently for 2 weeks, and had the house on the market 16 days after we felt the call.

42 days later our house is still on the market.  Lots of lookers but no buyers.  Bills are due and our finances are quickly depleting.  I start to lose heart over and over again.  Every morning, I get into my yellow chair to spend time with the Lord and remind myself that his mercies are new every day.  I start the time feeling discouraged then I read of His faithfulness.  Throughout Scripture, I learn about the God who loved me so much that he sent his only Son to live and die for me.  I read the promises of a God who provides for his people, even the lilies of the field (Matthew 6:28).  God tells us to make our requests to him.  I do that and have to then trust he will work his good and perfect will in our lives.

As I see the faithfulness of our God, I realize that I have a choice.  I can choose to believe in the promises of God even as there remains a house to sell and bills to pay or I can choose to listen to all my doubts, believing God’s promises are not true for me. The first choice brings peace and hope.  The second choice brings discouragement and a loss of heart.

These two choices are put before us every day.  All of our lives have trials and tribulation.  Your trials may not be selling your home, but they are just as real to you as selling this house is to me.  Like me, you have a choice — choose to believe God’s promises for you or choose to believe the doubts, the lies of the enemy.

Do not lose heart!  Make the choose to believe the truths of Scripture.  Replace the negative thoughts, the tendencies to discouragement and despair — take it all to the foot of the cross.  There you can look up at your Savior who gave his life that you may live.  In him, you not only have life but life abundant (John 10:10).