July 3rd, 2026
Hello, Church Family! As I write this, it’s 1:00 AM, and I’m tending a brisket overnight for an early Independence celebration tomorrow. This weekend will be full of fireworks, parties, and lots of food as our country turns 250 years old. It has me thinking about the concept of freedom and independence on a cosmic level: the type of freedom the Lord offers us, which is the free will to choose Him or choose ourselves.
Free Will is something I see in Scripture, starting from the very beginning of humanity. In Genesis 2:16-17, the Lord tells Adam and Eve, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.” (NIV). It feels so weird, if not completely nonsensical, for God to create a tree that bears desirable fruit if He was just going to ban it’s consumption specifically. I don’t claim this to be the only element of what’s going on with the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, but one thing I do see is this presentation made to Adam and Eve: choose Obedience, or choose rebellion. Unfortunately, they chose the latter…
Freedom is a glorified thing in the United States; some secularists might even suggest its the most important thing. We fought for this freedom two and a half centuries ago, and we continue the fight to maintain it today. Let me make this clear, that freedom is an incredible blessing to have, but you’ve heard the saying… Freedom is not free. Every form of it comes with a price tag, and in America, it has come at the cost of over a million lives in battle since July 4th, 1776. The freedom found in Genesis 2 comes with a price all the same: the unfortunate truth that we’re prone to making the wrong choices.
The Lord could have not put that tree in Eden, therefore not giving us any option of going against Him. He could’ve sheltered Adam and Eve in this utopian place for centuries and then millennia, with them perfectly obeying every rule (only because there are none to break). They would have no choice but to obey and love the Lord… but would that be love? We can trust that God had wise and good purposes in allowing that choice. Therefore, presenting obedience as a deliberate decision to be made, rather than making disobedience impossible, is a blessing given to us by Him. He could’ve programmed us to perfectly love Him and follow His Will, but would we be any more than robots? Our Father made us much more intentionally than that!
This is where the price of freedom comes in. It is beautiful that I have to choose love and obedience to the Lord, but it comes at the cost of me messing up frequently… There are many days I wish I had less freedom to make those wrong decisions. Wouldn’t it be great to just obey, 100% of the time? Would it not be amazing to live every day perfectly within the Lord’s commands? I imagine it would be quite special, and we’ll get to experience that reality in heaven one day. Nonetheless, we currently live in a world where you’ll have to make 1,000 decisions every day to choose the Lord’s Will over your own. The Lord did not desire for us the destruction that sin brings, but He offered up the freedom to love Him or reject Him very intentionally.
I desperately long to be a better man, and sanctification plays a major role in that being possible in this life. Reading, praying, silence and solitude, and fasting are all great examples of how we tame the flesh so we might rebel less often. However, the most important part is surrender… That’s not a word you want to hear around Independence Day. 250 years ago we declared that we wouldn’t submit to some greater power across the Atlantic; we would fight to the death to defend this declared autonomy. This was an amazing thing for our nation to do in the face of oppression, but in our walk with God, our behavior must be the opposite.
The culture has taught us to pursue what makes us happy on an individual scale. Every ounce of our flesh wants to gratify itself at the cost of others. In opposition to our tendency to desire autonomy so badly, we must make the choice to surrender to God’s Will rather than our own. As we celebrate our country’s 250th birthday, I encourage you to look within and consider where you’re still fighting God for independence. Is it a certain sin you refuse to give up? Is it a certain person you’re refusing to forgive? Is it a refusal to trust God financially? Whatever it might be, I encourage you to lay it at the feet of Jesus, and pursue the choice of obedience every day.
In Him,
Peyton