Fireworks light the sky. Flags wave. Grills sizzle and laughter fills the air. On this day, we celebrate the gift of living in a free country. And what a gift it is — to gather openly, speak boldly, worship freely.
But whether you’re surrounded by loved ones today or feeling the sting of loneliness… whether your heart swells with gratitude for our nation or aches under the weight of division, disappointment, or global unrest… there is a greater freedom we must not overlook.
True freedom doesn’t come from a government or a set of rights. True freedom comes from Christ.
We are free because Jesus took our sin, our shame, and our punishment. He bore the weight of death and broke its power forever. Because of His love, we are no longer captives to fear, condemnation, or hopelessness.
“Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.”
2 Corinthians 3:17 (CSB)
Today, let us celebrate with gratitude. But even more, let us stand firm in the unshakable truth:
We are free because we are His. Perfectly loved. Forever secure.
Soak in these words of truth:
“The Spirit of the Lord God is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and freedom to the prisoners .”
Isaiah 61:1
“For you were called to be free, brothers and sisters; only don’t use this freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but serve one another through love.”
Galatians 5:13
“If you continue in my word, you really are my disciples.You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
John 8:31-32
“Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus, because the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and death.”
Romans 8:1-2
Because of Christ’s amazing love, we are free indeed.
Pray with us:
Lord, thank You for the gift of true freedom. On this day when we celebrate liberty as a nation, we look to You as the source of all true liberty. Thank You that because of Jesus, we are free from the power of sin, shame, and fear. Help us to walk as Your daughters — not burdened by the past, not shaken by the present, and never uncertain about the future.
Fill us with deep gratitude for what You have done, and help us to use our freedom to love and serve one another. Whether we are rejoicing with friends and family or feeling the ache of isolation, remind us that we are never alone. We are forever free, held in Your perfect love.
In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Amen! I love this! I’m so thankful for the (in)courage writers, and community of women. God bless you on this wonderful Independence Day. Praise God for the freedom we have to worship Jesus!
America really is a neat idea!
As the US bulk-deports people without due process and without any attempt at being careful to send them to places where they will be safe (61% of those deported this year have no criminal record; half of the 29% with a “criminal record” only have traffic or immigration stuff – see Washington Post graphs based on the FOIA requested info from ICE, or check out ICE’s own spreadsheet for who they’re currently detaining), while publicly claiming that they are all “the worst of the worst” and “animals” and they’re just getting rid of “criminals” – sending some of them to camps or straight-up prisons in countries they’re not from (with some of those countries currently under a “don’t go there, it’s not safe” US travel warning!), many of them Christians, some of them after decades of working in the US or having done US military service, some of them grabbed literally *from churches* in the US in bulk operations or from their asylum hearings where they were complying with the laws on maintaining “I’m not safe in my home country” refugee status, I don’t feel like I should be content with *personally* having freedom of religion and freedom of assembly and freedom of speech. A part of my family tree… went away… in the Holocaust and I want to say what I would have wanted the German church to say at that time: lying about people so we can feel better about getting rid of them by inhumane means is wrong and anti-Christian, and we need to stand against that and publicly object to it.
It would be neat if America could become an inwardly Christ-following nation – following Jesus’s commands to love our neighbor (and, for that matter, our enemy!); recognizing that what we do to the ‘least of these’ we do to Him, whether that’s good or bad; serving God and not money; being kind to one another; and I hope we can move towards that from here!
But until then, hopefully individually we can move ever more faithfully onward towards Christ and a knowledge of His love and a willingness to respond to that love by loving Him and doing what He commanded us.
Amen, KC, amen.
Thank you for sharing your heart with us, KC. I’m a member of the (in)courage staff team and just want to say all of it really is so hard and complicated, so know we hear and see you. We are in agreement with your hope and prayer — may we all move ever more faithfully onward towards Christ and a knowledge of God’s love. Amen.
In Courage,
We need to live a Christ-centered life showing & telling others about Christ’s love & the freedom He gives us from Hell.
Blessings 🙂