You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. (Gal. 3:26)
A WOMAN HAD JUST MOVED to Manhattan and was paranoid about big-city crime. She promptly had eight deadbolts secured to her apartment door. Her new neighbor paid a visit and, seeing the quantity of hardware, gave her host some strange advice: “Lock only half of them.” The newcomer followed the suggestion before retiring for the night.
She woke the next morning to find that the locks she had left unlocked were now bolted, and those that she’d locked the night before were now unlocked. The potential intruder had successfully changed the status of every lock, leaving himself just as locked out as when he’d started. How frustrated he must have been! A door with only half the bolts engaged still denies access.
Paul warned that those who strive to follow the law are alienating themselves from God’s grace (Gal. 5:4). So if we act as if any part of the law limits our service to God, aren’t we also adhering to limitations found in it? Rejecting the viability of our potential for incredible service because of gender, social status, or background is Old Testament stuff in a New Testament world, and it is a mockery of the freedom Jesus has given to us.
Jesus has freed you from the limitations of the law, and He’d love for you to live with the confidence of a child of the King.
What limits you in your service to God? Feel free to unlock one bolt today.
Dave Knickerbocker is a church planter and aspiring writer from northeast Ohio.
