Freedom is for You

I’ve been finding myself in Psalm 18 over and over again lately.  It’s a great passage to return to when I feel hopeless or overcome.  The psalmist begins by expressing his love for the Lord and shares a testimony of how the Lord delivered him.  He was entangled with death and called out to God.  The heavens shook, God was angry, He shot arrows, and He thundered forth.  He reached down and rescued the psalmist, delivering him into a spacious place because God delighted in him. Later the psalmist talks about how God trained his hands for war and he overtook his own enemies.  At the end of his story, he praises God again.

Obstacles come in life that deceive us into believing we will never be past them.  Some issues we struggle with seem relentless.  Sometimes we think we are free only to find ourselves back in the same mess some time later.  The highest hope in the face of addiction may seem to be that you’ll spend the rest of your life avoiding mistakes rather than walking in true freedom. But freedom is for you and it’s not far.

Although we may not be literally entangled in cords of death like Psalm 18, we can learn about the character of God through this passage.  You will have a testimony about your addiction because God delights in you.  God is your Deliverer.  He sees your captivity and responds in righteous anger: not toward you but toward that which comes against you.  He is going to get you out of it and bring you to a spacious place.  When you’ve been restored, He can even train you to crush your enemies.  And there will be a time when genuine praise comes from your mouth because of what you’ve experienced God free you from.  This is the nature of God revealed in Scripture.

Let that be a mark of hope for you.  Freedom is not far from you because God delights in you.  It’s not dependent on you, it’s dependent on God’s love for you.  Call out to Him and let Him rescue you.  A wise friend told me that life is not cycles but a journey.   We don’t get stuck in the same struggle we were in years ago, though it may appear like we are.  We gain ground and victory each time we invite God to deliver us.  If you feel like your hope has been stolen, your motivation toward victory is dead, and your strength has been destroyed, that’s not God. Those are deceptive lies.  You are empowered by the Spirit and life that cannot be taken from you.  There is coming a day that you won’t be addicted anymore.  You don’t have to doubt that.  So look at the days in between today and your deliverance.  Make a choice to not give up because it’s going to be worth it in the end.  If you don’t quit, you win.  Cry out to God and He will rescue you— this is His promise to you.

I’m proud of you for making it this far.  I’m proud of you for wanting more than a life of addiction.  I believe there is more for you.  There is purpose in your life that is far above what any addiction can offer.  There is value in you as a person, as you are today, that no addiction can steal away.  Don’t let your struggles convince you that you are less than you are.  You are a child of God and have freedom written into your story by the Author of our faith.

Author | Savannah Ugan