Freedom

With the youth at church today Brodie used one of my favourite Augustine quotes: "Love God, and do what you like". I think this is a paraphrase of Psalm 37:4 "Delight yourself in the LORD and he will give you the desires of your heart." not in the sense that God will give me what I want - but by delighting in HIm he gives me new desires. The proof of loving God is living a life that demonstrates it. Jesus said "If you love me, keep my commandments". Doing what I want, if I truly love God, means doing what HE WANTS. I love the Augustine quote because to me it speaks of the work of the Holy Spirit in my life, changing my heart.

I think, particularly today, that there's often a tendency to confuse freedom with licence. Christian freedom is loving
God and doing what He likes. Licence is loving yourself and doing what you like.
Freedom in Christ isn't the freedom to sin. It's not the freedom to have right doctrine and wrong heart attitudes. It's not the freedom to remain bitter and cynical. It's not the freedom to be the same as every Tom, Dick and Hamish.
No.
It's the freedom to be all that God intended. It's the freedom to live according to the Spirit and not according to the flesh. It's the freedom to reach out rather than withdraw. It's the freedom to boldly enter into God's presence in full assurance of faith. It's a freedom to "glorify God and enjoy Him forever" as the catechism says.