@BabyStarCandy 19 November 2021 more from that month

“You are a slave to whatever controls you.” (2 Peter‬ ‭2:19) There is a lot of importance placed on our rights, on our ability to choose what we believe, who we will follow, which social and political circles we will join—our freedoms. But it’s sort of a smokescreen; we are really slaves, all of us. Whatever controls you is your master. Even the fight for liberty can become an overwhelming and oppressive master. To win at any cost means to rob someone else of their freedom, the freedom to not join you in your cause. It happens in the church. Trying to convince someone to believe in Jesus, to make a decision when he or she hasn’t yielded to the conviction of the Holy Spirit, is to create confusion. God is able. He is able to take your witness, your sharing of what he’s done for you, and turn it into desire, into a hunger for more, for the peace that you have; your negotiating skills are not what makes the difference. I will repeat what a young missionary once said to me, that if he could convince people to believe then the next person could just as easily convince them not to believe. Jesus never attempted to force belief, he invited. And He modeled righteous slavery. Try to reconcile those two words being in the same sentence. Peter learned this the hard way. Whatever influences your life, whatever impulses you permit to drive you, is your master. He surrendered to fear, which would have led to death, until he turned to Jesus. Paul declared that he was a slave to Christ. Jesus humbly submitted to and obeyed the Father, all the way to the cross. You will be a slave to something or someone. The liberty God offers is to choose your own master. Only one leads to life. #Jesus #Life #Love