Set Free

Love is not self-seeking,

1 Cor 13:5 (NIV)

God focus frees us from the tyranny of the self.  The self is bound, a slave. The self is defensive and stingy, thinking that to have, it must grab and hold onto what it wants.  Self focus leads to an impoverished life.  

In contrast, God's love is expansive, outward looking and abundant.  His love is inexhaustible.  The more we give away the more we get.  The life of love does not seek to hold on to its own, but by giving gains more.

Jesus came to set us free from the tyranny of self and self-focus.  It is a freedom that comes through death.  I consider that my old self died with Christ so it is no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me and that the Christ life within creates in me a new self free to love.  I am a new creation.  God lives in me therefore, love lives in me and I live in love.

Lord, thank you for setting us free from the slave master of self.  Help us to stay focused on you as we allow your liberating love to grow in us and to be expressed through us. 

If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation;

the old has gone, the new has come!

2 Cor 5:17 (NIV)

So you too consider yourselves dead to sin,

but alive to God in Christ Jesus.

Romans 6:11 (NET)

My old self has been crucified with Christ. 

It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me.

Gal 2:20 (NLT)