Send it Back!

 

For those of you who don’t know, as part of our business, I deliver freight around town to homes and businesses. Sometimes, I receive a parcel in the pallets of freight I sort through, that belongs to someone in another town or state. The parcel has mistakenly been sent to my depo and so it has to be returned to where it came from to be redirected to the right destination.

Every so often, after sending off the parcel, it ends up bouncing back to me, misdirected once again. I have occasionally had parcels return to me 3 times that I keep sending off only to have them return again. 

Very frustrating for the person eagerly awaiting their parcel, I’m sure.

But finally, there comes a point where I see it no more.

Did you know that the Devil likes to send us back the package that Christ has freed us from?

Maybe in the past you suffered from depression or anxiety. Maybe it was substance abuse or repeatedly returning to toxic relationships. But there came a day where you put yourself in full surrender into God’s hands and he miraculously delivered you from the bondage you were under.

And yet, the Devil likes to come knocking at our door.

He likes to return the package you sent off. He asks, “Are you really free? How about I give you a little of that anxiety back? Or can I interest you in this relationship? Or what about a little bit of this substance? You know it’ll make you feel better.”

There is a verse in Galatians 5 I’d like to draw your attention to.

Galatians 5:1 KJV - Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.

In the book of Galatians, Paul addressed the believers in Galatia because they were facing a theological crisis of sorts due to false teachers amongst them, promoting legalism and impressing upon others the need to follow the Old Testament rules, laws and ceremonies.

These legalistic Jewish teachers were insisting upon the Mosaic law being kept and emphasized law over faith and grace.

Paul wrote to these believers to highlight the importance of the liberty that is found in Christ and when we come to chapter 5 verse 1 Paul reminds them to stand firm in their freedom, not as a license to sin, but so as to not be held in bondage of the Old law but to be indwelt by the Holy Spirit and able to live in joyous freedom as they followed Christ.

There is a lot more in this book to discuss and I don’t want to take this verse out of context, but I think there is something to be learnt from it in regards to the freedom we have in Christ.  

Jesus came to set the captive free.

Luke 4:18 KJV - The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised,

If we are a believer, Christ came to set us free from the bondage of sin and when we place our burden on him, he loosens the chains and sets us free.

Not only does he set us free from sin, but he continually helps us get the victory over difficulties we face in our lives.

He offers healing for our brokenness and restoration for our wounded hearts. As we experience freedom in Christ, we discover our true identity in him as a loved, child of God.

When we have been relieved of our burdensome ‘package’, we don’t have to accept it when the Devil comes knocking with his lies. We can remind him of the return policy.

We can stand firm in the freedom Christ has given us and we can send it back! We don’t have to carry that burden around anymore and once we’ve given it to Jesus, we can send it back when the Devil comes along trying to entice us to take it back again.

We need to remind him that we’ve been set free. We won’t accept his junk mail. Because we’ve been changed. We are not the same person we were when the package first arrived at our door. We’ve been made new. We’ve been restored. Set free.

So many times, we struggle with something in our lives and the Lord helps us to get the victory over it and we move forward for a time, excited about our newfound freedom, only to have the Devil whisper his lies in our ears.

I can attest to this in my own life. Many times, anxious thoughts will come to my mind, threatening to overwhelm me and send me spiralling, but I stop and take control of the thought, (2 Corinthians 10:5) remembering where it will take me and reminding myself of God’s power. I cry out to him, and he reaches down and lifts me up and plants my feet on solid footing once again.

When the Devil whispers, this is when we need to stand firm and hold to the truth. We have to claim the promises of God and stand confident in our God-given identity. It takes effort on our part, with God’s help, to stand strong in the place of liberty. It’s all too easy to slip back into slavery again and listen to the Devil’s lies that tell us we will never be free from our burden.

Not only do we need to be careful not to slip into the trap of believing works will save us, but we also need to be watchful that we don’t let sin have free rein when we’ve been given freedom in Christ by his death on the cross and the power, he has to set us free from the things that bind us.

Please don’t misunderstand me when I use the word ‘sin’. I do not believe depression is sin, or many other things that we struggle with. I am generalizing here in order to make a point.

The things that we struggle with, and the things God has helped us overcome will most likely come knocking at our door and we will hear them call our name in times of weakness, weariness or spiritual apathy.

We have to be on our guard continually. The Devil is very cunning, and he knows our weaknesses as he studies human nature.

John 10:10 KJV - The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.

God wants us to live an abundant life. And that means us sending the packages back!

Don’t accept the Devil’s lies. Remember where God has brought you from. Remind yourself of past victories. Claim your full identity in Christ and believe in him when he tells you who you are.

You are not who others say you are. You are who Christ says you are!

The Devil might seem to be winning now, but he has been defeated already and his day is coming.

Revelation 20:10 KJV - And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever.

If you have been set free, then live free.

Don’t allow junk mail in your life’s box. Don’t accept it. Send it back.

Return to sender!

Stamp it with the seal of the blood of Christ and send it back!