WEIGHTLESS FREEDOM

FREEDOM: the state of not being imprisoned or enslaved.

“For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.” -Galatians 5:1

God kept pressing this word on my heart and in my spirit. A friend even gave me a bracelet with the word FREE, and that was after I had decided on FREEDOM as my word. Today at church, God broke more chains from me. I received freedom from food addiction, freedom from shame, freedom from myself!

A dear friend posted this on her Facebook recently: “Adam and Eve hid from shame, clothing themselves in fig leaves. They hid from their Father when He came to commune with them. Yet, the Father took the skin of an animal, foreshadowing the shedding of the precious blood of Jesus, and covered them in skins. Jesus redeemed all that was lost in the garden and more. Now we are clothed in Him, skin to skin.

She went on to speak about how we let shame cover us. I know that food addiction is about MORE than the food. In fact, it’s really NOT about the food, but about what is in my heart. And today, God laid it out for me. He laid it out to me and in me. I knew it before, but today He made me SEE it and FEEL it and KNOW it! In the past few days, I messaged friends about how I have been struggling more than usual lately with food. God brought all of this to mind as my friend was speaking at church. God definitely used her to reach me for greater freedom.

Why have I been addicted to food? I have used it as a cover– to cover pain from my past, to hide because I’ve been told so many times that I’m not good enough. Why? Because I have always been overweight and didn’t have a big house or name brand clothes as a child. I used food as a cover because I was ashamed of who I was and what I looked like. I have always been one that would lose weight, stop after awhile, and then start gaining. Why? It’s easy to hide behind weight. As the weight comes off, so do layers of heartache and pain, as well as layers of shame. As the weight comes off, people start seeing me more, looking at me more, wanting to know more.

When this happens, it’s scary. Because it is then that God is able to dig deeper into my soul and uncover things that I would rather leave covered. Today He showed me that I let Him in, but only so far. Healing isn’t always easy and simple. Most of the time it hurts. Real freedom can hurt! It’s time that I let God in all the way. It’s time that I get raw and totally open to Him. This is BOLD in the soul.

Another friend told me, “Living in freedom can sometimes be harder than obeying strict rules.” Obeying rules is easy; there is not a lot of thinking involved. You can just do what needs to be done and go on. That is NOT how God wants us to live. He wants us to live in TRUE FREEDOM!! He wants to reach into us and bring out all the junk we want to hide. He wants to bring it out so we can let go of it! So we can move forward! He wants to pull off the layers of shame and cover us with freedom.

Today, God truly showed me that I am NOT food addiction. I am NOT shame. I am NOT timid. I am NOT unworthy.

Today, God showed me that I am FREE! I am a SHAME SLAYER! I am BRAVE! I am FEARLESS! I am WORTHY! I am ENOUGH! I am HIS!

I’m no longer a slave! FREEDOM! FREEDOM! FREEDOM!

This is NOT the photo I had in mind to do when I knew this was my word. I do NOT like doing these photos. But when God leads me in that direction, I go with it. Especially when He’s telling me it’s for my FREEDOM!

This freedom is for EVERYONE!

Alisa

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