I ended last week’s article with this question: “You were made by God to be free. Are you?”

Did you think about your answer? There’s a lot to consider because there are five components to human life – mental, emotional, spiritual, physical, and relational – and all five are vulnerable to bondage. To answer the freedom question, we must consider each one.

Are you mentally free? Our minds can process massive amounts of information. That is vital because it helps us to think through challenges and overcome obstacles. But that same mind can become obsessed with worry, doubt, anxiety, and fear. We’ve all been there. It is a paralyzing form of bondage that darkens every aspect of life, stealing away joy, productivity, and peaceful sleep. What are the recordings that run endlessly in your mind? If you don’t do something to stop them, you will be in mental bondage. Jesus commanded us not worry in Matthew 6:25-34.

Are you emotionally free? Our hearts respond powerfully to the situations we encounter. When those responses are joy, peace, and contentment, our hearts feel happy and light. But those emotions can turn on a dime and fly completely out of control. Road rage is a prime example. Another example is the drama-drama-drama that Narcissists bring into every situation – and they want to drag you into it too. Emotional bondage is powerful and often leads people into self-destructive activity that enslaves them even more.

Are you spiritually free? Our spirit is the eternal and invisible force that God breathed into us at conception. It defines life. When human flesh contains the spirit, it is alive. When the spirit leaves, the body of flesh is dead. That makes the spirit vitally important, yet many of us ignore it. The result is a spirit that longs to be nourished by grace, to love and to be loved, and to soar with an eternal and divine purpose. A neglected spirit dies a slow death. The writer of Ecclesiastes summed up a spirit-malnourished life in one word, “Meaningless!” See Ecclesiastes 1:2.

Sadly, religion can be a trap that enslaves the spirit in an insidious form of bondage. Jesus preached hard against dead religion (Matthew 23), and Paul’s entire letter to the Galatians does the same. Is religion trapping your spirit in a prison of legalism, dogma, works, obligation, politics, judgment, division, showmanship, and self-worship? Or is it causing your spirit to soar with joy, love, peace, unity, purpose, and hope?

Are you physically free? The human body is an extraordinary creation designed with amazing systems that function without us even thinking about it. For example, the Autonomic Nervous System (ANS), with its sympathetic and parasympathetic branches, controls nearly every aspect of the human body to maintain homeostasis (healthy balance), enabling our bodies to serve us well. To that end, the ANS rewards good behavior by releasing dopamine, a neurotransmitter that produces a sense of pleasure or well-being.

Dopamine is why you feel better after a good meal, or a good night’s sleep, or a long run, or an intimate moment with your spouse. It’s your body’s way of rewarding you for making healthy choices.

Here’s the problem. We have found ways to manipulate our ANS to release dopamine on demand. Doing so causes the ANS to resist releasing dopamine. The result is known as the Law of Diminishing Returns: whatever you did yesterday to get a dopamine release, it won’t be quite enough today. It will take more. Do you remember when the nicotine in two or three cigarettes was enough? The alcohol in two or three beers? A hit of your favorite drug only on the weekend? Do you remember when your wife’s beauty was enough? Where are you now? Three packs a day? A fifth of whisky every night? A constant high? Scrolling through porn all day? In bed with another man’s wife? A gambling addiction? Food? Gaming or social media? Caffeine? A bigger house? A more luxurious car? Bigger debts? Forced to pursue a bigger paycheck? Heavy overtime? A second job?

We just want to feel good, but when the source of pleasure is the rush of dopamine, we never have enough. Never. The result is bondage.

Are you relationally free? We were made to share life together. The isolation of the Covid pandemic made us realize the vital importance of human connection. Healthy relationships, those guarded by unity, peace, and mutual care, are a blessing beyond description. And of course, the opposite is true. Broken relationships, those destroyed by conflict, division, partisanship, and selfishness, are a terrible source of bondage.

Are you free?

Lent can be celebrated in a lot of ways, but maybe this year you need to take stock of your freedom. Lent leads us to the cross of Jesus Christ. Why? Because it was on the cross that Jesus fulfilled the righteous requirements of the law so that you and I could be set free from the law of sin and from death itself. That is why Paul declared in Galatians 5:1, It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.

My friend, you can be free. Will it require obedience and sacrifice? Most certainly. Remember the two principles of freedom: #1 Law first; then freedom. #2 Freedom is never free.

The choice is yours. When you find your true identity as a child of God, no one and no thing can enslave you. Here is Jesus’ declaration of freedom to you. I pray it will bring peace to your weary heart.

Very truly I tell you, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. Now, a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. John 8:34-36