“The flowers are springing up, the season of singing birds has come, and the cooing of turtledoves fills the air.”
Song of Songs 2:12 NLT

When was the last time you stopped and listened to the birds singing? Pause for a moment, if you can, and listen. They are there each morning welcoming the rising sun, and each evening as the sun sets for the day. Birds are nature’s choir and they can teach us something if we choose to hear it. Sweet sounding melodies lifted daily on earth as it is in heaven. A glimpse of the daily praise given to God in the throne room of His Kingdom. Songs without ceasing. Different notes layering into a symphony of beauty. Each one offering up their voice without hesitation and adding to the soundtrack of life. This is a picture of what God wants for us as we walk with Him each day...free and purposeful and unashamed. What holds us back from living this way?

“Consider the birds—do you think they worry about their existence? They don’t plant or reap or store up food, yet your heavenly Father provides them each with food. Aren’t you much more valuable to your Father than they?”
Matthew 6:26 TPT

Consider the birds as this verse instructs...flying high and defying gravity, never questioning if they can or if they should. Traveling freely in the air that separates heaven and earth, they are unconcerned as all their needs are met by their creator. How it must feel to glide on the wind and dance on the trees. I long to live with this same freedom!

But remember friends, we have an enemy that strives to keep us from freedom...one who loves when we are filled with worry and strife, and distracted and weighed down by temptation and sin...

“And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the
course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience - among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind...”
Ephesians 2:1-3 ESV

In this passage, Paul reminds us that there is an opposing enemy spirit that is trying to tempt us back into the “trespasses and sins” that keep us in bondage...in slavery. Which “spirit” are you walking in today? Are you letting the wind take you back and forth wherever is “feels” best? There is something in the last verse that can help us see an important truth. Did you notice the connection to disobedience? Ephesians chapter 2 is talking about the struggle within us to follow our flesh and its immediate desires.

The key to a life lived in freedom is to live in

obedience to God’s will,

and not our own.

Trusting in His perfect will even when it doesn’t make sense. Especially when it doesn’t make sense! When we allow God’s love to penetrate our deep longings and desires, something amazing happens within us at a soul level that transforms us and then flows out from us. Seemingly unexplained joy and peace invades and fills us to the core in ways the world never could.

“But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ” Ephesians 2:5 ESV

For those that have accepted Jesus as their savior, you have been saved and MADE ALIVE as this verse tells us! You are created on purpose and with a purpose. So, LIVE! Death has been defeated and eternity awaits you! If you haven’t experienced His love and freedom lately...I want to encourage you to spend some time reading through these verses and searching your heart for what lies you might have let creep in. Replace it with the truth in these verses and let it penetrate your soul.

If you are one that hasn’t yet professed your faith in Jesus, we invite you to do that now:

Close your eyes and ask Him to come into your heart and be Lord of your life.

Call someone to pray through this with and celebrate together!

Walk with a renewed sense of purpose.

- Jessica Ritchie, Worship Leader