April 22: Slaves of God

For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification. For when you were slaves of sin, you were free with regard to righteousness. So what benefit did you then reap from those things that you are now ashamed of? For the end of those things is death. But now, freed from sin and enslaved to God, you have your benefit leading to sanctification, and the end is eternal life. For the payoff of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.   (Romans 6:19-23  NET)

Today we don’t view slavery as a positive thing. It actually still exists in some small, isolated pockets of the world, but as a whole it is viewed as a very flawed part of civilization and history. But when it comes to the spiritual world, the Bible frequently describes people as slaves to impurity or slaves to righteousness, slaves to the devil or slaves to God. Spiritually we are all slaves to someone or something.

Addictions are a very real form of modern slavery, and society has uncovered more addictions than ever before: alcohol, illegal drugs, prescription drugs, gambling, pornography, cutting, and so forth. Though people know that their addiction brings them pain and suffering, they continue to practice it because they are enslaved by demons. Anger, anxiety, depression, worry, negativity and various other attitudes can also clearly be considered modern forms of slavery that take over people’s lives and force them to do what they do not want to do.

But we should not be afraid of being God's slave. When we are, we are also sons or daughters of God, we are citizens in Jesus’ eternal kingdom, and heirs of God. Being God's slave translated into true freedom. Therefore, we should not hesitate to surrender to God—everything we give to Him, He will purify, bless, and multiply, and then send back to us.

Every one of us should determine to take control of our life right now and become God’s servant and slave. Refuse to allow sin and the devil to rule over you. You belong to the Lord Jesus Christ—He bought us at a very high price, and so we are no longer slaves to immorality, drugs, lies, and so forth. This is not simply a good idea, it’s a life and death issue because the wages (payoff) of sin is death—but the gift of God is eternal life.