Influencers Weekly Devotional

Break Free From The Bubble

by

Bryan Craig

This faith journey sure is interesting. “Journey” is a good word to describe it, for it is a long adventure full of everything imaginable. There are great times of discovery and conquest, there are times of mundane waiting, there are times of challenge and fear. You may be thinking, “Well, that’s just life you’re describing. It doesn’t have anything to do with faith.” No, I’m talking about the life of a disciple of Christ. I believe someone who is not living for God can manage to live a pretty safe life without much challenge. We can intentionally stay in our comfort zone and manage life from that position. Some may call it, “Living in The Bubble.” We can maintain a good job with a good salary and live in a nice house in a safe neighborhood. We can raise our kids in a way where we keep them in The Bubble. We can make sure they are around other kids from the bubble exclusively so as not to corrupt them. We can maintain a good salary and make sure we save up enough money so that when we retire, we can fund The Bubble until the day we die. Is that really the life Christ intended for us? It looks attractive on some levels, but at a deeper level, written on every man’s heart, is a desire to be significant, to fight for a great cause, to leave a legacy. I’m thinking of William Wallace’s inspiring speech in the movie, Braveheart, as he challenges his fellow Scotsmen: “I am William Wallace! And I see a whole army of my countrymen, here in defiance of tyranny. You've come to fight as free men... and free men you are. What will you do with that freedom? Will you fight? Aye, fight and you may die. Run, and you'll live... at least a while. And dying in your beds, many years from now, would you be willin' to trade ALL the days, from this day to that, for one chance, just one chance, to come back here and tell our enemies that they may take our lives, but they'll never take... OUR FREEDOM!” Now, I realize that this was just a movie, and these words may have never come out of William Wallace’s mouth. However, there is a truth in these words which resonates in our hearts as men. Our Lord Jesus talked about freedom. “If you hold to My teaching, you are really My disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free….So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.” John 8:31, 36 Jesus came to set us free and give us abundant life. Satan, the “Prince of this world,” which is who Scripture calls him, is out to steal, kill and destroy, but he is also out to hold us captive. If he can get us to buy into The Bubble comfort zone way of life, he will most likely leave us alone. Just don’t get any ideas of stepping outside of that zone by doing a good deed, being gracious or helping others, or Satan will put you back in your place in a hurry. He will intimidate you with fear….fear that someone will take advantage of you….fear that you will lose reputation of position….fear that you or your kids will be in danger. Some of you, like me, have decided to follow Jesus. We have tried Satan’s world system, and it never felt right. It never satisfied the deepest longings of our hearts. We joined the Journey. We weren’t sure where it was going to take us, but we knew we wanted more. We could not live another day in The Bubble. We fought through the initial fear and the challenges and persecution that came. We’ve been walking with Him for quite awhile. Yet, there are still moments when we are not sure we are on the right path. Things don’t seem to be going as well as we wish, and we are discouraged. We are confused. These are the times where we are tempted to go back to The Bubble. I experienced this feeling just the other day. I cried out to the Lord, and I felt like He said, “Take heart…you are in good company.” All of the sudden, I started thinking of all of the great men of Faith in the Bible. They were on the Journey, just like me, and they all had to fight through their fleshly emotions and expectations and failures to gain greater ground with God. I thought of Elijah, a great prophet of God, who prayed down fire from Heaven in a majestic display of power and domination over God’s enemies. The next thing we read is how he was afraid and ran for his life. He cries out to God, “I have had enough, Lord. Take my life; I am no better than my ancestors.” I thought of David, the man after God’s own heart, the one who was hand-picked by God to be king. So often, he found himself at low points in life, uncertain and miserable. Many of his Psalms were written out of anguish. Solomon, David’s son, was given riches, wisdom, pleasures, honor as a man of God, and all he can say in the end is that, “Everything is meaningless.” The same could be said for Gideon, Daniel, Samson, Jeremiah, Moses, Joshua and all the men of God in the Old Testament. They all did great things for God, but they all had times of depression and uncertainty. Jesus came and he walked among us. He came into the midst of our strife and brokenness and shared in it. He watched His disciples battle fear, hunger, storms, persecution, pride and doubt. He didn’t always remove their obstacles, but He was always there, teaching, guiding, restoring. He lived such a holy life, a life so contrary to the world system or the religious system. And it caused Him pain and grief, and ultimately, death. Paul, who had a seemingly comfortable, powerful position on earth, traded it in to join the Journey. The rest of his life was full of beatings, imprisonments, afflictions, persecutions, misunderstandings. Did he miss The Bubble? No! He says: “I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ- the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith. I want to know Christ and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in His sufferings, becoming like Him in His death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.” Philippians 3:8-11 Paul got it. It’s not about us. We should not focus on ourselves and our petty insecurities and discomforts, even though it is very normal to experience those things, even as a believer. That is the daily battle. God allows us to stay in this tension between Flesh and Spirit so that we will always realize how much we need Him. We must keep our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our Faith. We, like Him, must die to this life, so that we can be set free. This is a daily thing. This comes through abiding. Hebrews 11 is considered the “Hall of Faith” chapter where all the great champions of the faith are honored. It talks about all the great things they did, but it says something very telling: “These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised. God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect.” Hebrews 11:39-40 We are part of God’s master plan. It is good and perfect and even though we cannot see it all clearly, we press on in Faith, doing that which God created us to do. We won’t find God’s Will for our life in the false protection of The Bubble. We must break free so that we can find trust in God and find real life. We must join the battle without fear. We fight, knowing that Satan can take our lives, but he can never take our FREEDOM. Download file