NO LONGER SLAVES
Today's reading: Galatians 4-6

"Now you are no longer a slave but God's own child. And since you are his child, everything he has belongs to you." Galatians 4:7 NLT

The definition of a slave, according to Mr. Webster, is someone who is legally owned by another person and is forced to work for that person without pay, a person who is strongly influenced and controlled by something.

I have always understood the 'owned by another person' aspect of slavery, but the part about being 'strongly influenced and controlled' has my head thinking...

There are a lot of us who are slaves and don't realize.

Sure we know who we are. Sure we proclaim our freedom out loud. Sure we can come and go as we please. But our minds are controlled, strongly influenced, by other things.

And those things are quite varied...

Fear. Security. Appearance. Reputation. Busyness. Wealth. Being right at all costs. Our appetites. Our habits. Our comfort. Anything that gets our time, attention, stresses us, drives us, weighs heavy on us, drives us.

Our church sings a song titled, No Longer Slaves and the chorus says this: 'I'm no longer a slave to fear, I am a child of God.'

I could fill in the blank to find out who truly owns me...I'm no longer a slave to _________, I am a child of God.