Wed Devotional

Daily Devotional 

from Touching Lives with Dr. James Merritt:

“If the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.” John 8:36


The Bible tells us that when we know Jesus then we will know Truth, and that Truth will set us free. The reality is that all of us need to be set free from something. Maybe it’s pride, or bitterness, or guilt. Maybe you need to be set free from a sin that is eating away at you, day after day. The longer we sin, the longer we hold on to the results of sin. The longer we struggle with the results of sin, the more trapped we feel and imprisoned we become. It is a viscous cycle.

We can long for things we believe will set us free…a new job, a new relationship, a different social status…something we can buy, or build, or become. Freedom for many of us becomes the answer—and we define it simply as escaping the way things are to the way things may be, in the hope that a new reality will in some way be better than this one.

The truth, however, is that real freedom is only found in Jesus. His Truth is absolute. The word absolute comes from the word solvere meaning, “to set free.” On the cross, Jesus died for all of our sins. When we surrender our lives to Him, those sins are forgiven. We are free from them. Absolutely. The Truth that Jesus died for our sins, rose again three days later, and invites us to surrender our lives to Him and join His mission on earth and His glory in heaven is absolute Truth.

Do you feel imprisoned? Burdened? Trapped and unable to bear the weight of living life by your own ways and rules? Do you long for something different—to be free of yourself and your reality now and to join something better? The answer is Jesus—absolute truth that will set you free, for today, and for eternity.

Jesus, thank You for dying for me to free me from the imprisonment of sin. I confess that I need the freedom that only You can give. I thank you for giving me life, forgiving my sins, and setting me free. Help me to live for you daily, freely, because of Your great gift. In Your name I pray, Amen.