Welcome to Redeem the Commute. I’m Ryan, your host for this daily challenge. It’s Thursday, the day we try to apply and live out what we’ve learned this week from the Bible. This week we’ve been studying how following Jesus makes us free, even when the world around us may not feel that way.

We learned about this from a story where Peter was jailed by a cruel and murderous and fearful King Herod, but God helped him escape from the jail through the miraculous intervention of an angel.

This story was significant – it shows us God will let nothing stop his message, and that God is greatly more powerful than any world leader.

But this image of freedom, despite worldly attempts to constrain us, is actually a great analogy for what Christianity is all about. To be exact, it’s an illustration of what Jesus has done for us.

We all know about debt and it was a problem 2000 years ago as well. In the ancient world, if someone had serious debts they might be forced to sell themselves into slavery in order to pay them off. So imagine if you will that someone was standing in the market place offering himself as a slave, and another person had pity on them and asked “how much do you owe ?” and the debtor replied “5,000” and suppose the man offers to pay the 5000 and then lets him go. In doing so, he would be redeeming him by paying the ransom, the blood money if you will.

In a similar way for us, redemption came by Jesus Christ and by his death on the cross he paid the ransom price and set us free from the power of sin. This is true freedom. It is does not mean that we will never sin again, but it means that sin’s ultimate hold over us has been broken.

Whatever holds you back in life – whether it’s debt, poverty, sickness, family, career, disability, education, motivation, etc. know that you were made for a better world. You were made to be free, made in God’s image.

We all want to be free, and so sometimes when we hear about laws, living a certain way, we think someone is trying to control or take away our freedom.

Imagine a train. It’s not designed for fields, designed for tracks. True freedom for a train is to run on tracks, not go wherever it wants. A train is never more free than to do what it was designed to do…run on tracks.

It’s the same with humans, designed by creator with a specific way of life. For best results, follow maker’s instructions.”

If we believe God created us, knows us best, then it makes sense that he knows what will help us or hurt us in life.

So no matter what happens in our lives, in our world, God has made us to be free, and through Jesus’ death and resurrection, he has invited us to join his kingdom to live in his way in true freedom both now, and in the future.

Challenge: What in your life can “chain” you down? Pray for Jesus to set you free from each one.