My daughters just started taking jiu-jitsu classes. They are simultaneously the most adorable and least ferocious fighters I’ve ever seen. They arrive at class with their white belts cinched and their hair tied up, and they pay attention with laser focus as their coach shows them how to escape bad guys and regain power over their potential oppressors.
I’m fully invested in their jiu-jitsu, so I can tell you that this martial art is not about attacking but about possessing the skills and power to protect yourself.
My seven-year-old may not look dangerous, but as she continues learning self-defense, she will gain a cool and humble skill set. She’ll possess power, but she won’t use it to punish. Hopefully, she’ll use it to defend and protect.
This time of year, we celebrate our God, who has all the power, but came to earth in the “likeness of humanity” (Philippians 2:7). He chose to serve rather than oppress. He used His infinite power to save His enemies. He came to set them—and us—free.
“He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives
and recovery of sight to the blind,
to set free the oppressed.”
—Luke 4:18
The prophet Isaiah said that Jesus would come to restore broken things, free captives, meet needs, protect, and guide. And then He came. And He humbled himself.
I love that we serve this better-than-a-blackbelt God who is all-powerful, yet completely humble. I remember He arrived to suffer, serve, and live like us. I love that walking with Him and being changed by Him leads me to enjoy His great love even during “Junior Grapplers Jiu-Jitsu” classes.
Let’s pray that our families will recognize and delight in the power of the His Spirit within us, and that we will use our new life in Him to love and live like Jesus did.
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81 thoughts on "Born to Set Thy People Free Day 6"
Lord I thank you!
Amen!
“Let us approach the throne of grace with boldness, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in time of need “
love
Love it!
Is anyone having issues using the QR codes in the study book??
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Welcome, so happy to have you, and Merry Christmas!
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New here. This is really helping me understand the season and appreciate the coming .
That is good I know my I needed that this morning
Jennifer, I am a teacher also. What a great analogy! Jesus “gets it”. He knows our struggles and temptations. He knows what grieves our hearts. He felt all of those things. I am in awe every day that he paid the price for our sins.
As a teacher, I can’t count the times I’ve been frustrated with decisions being made by people who have never been in a classroom. Over and over my colleagues and I have said “they have no idea what it is like!!” I’m sure that’s the case with most jobs. But my God!!! Not only does He know because he is all-knowing, but He knows because he came!! He got down in the dirt with us. He faced temptations, rejection, sorrow, hard times, busy times. He lived in the same world I live in with the same problems as I have. And He CHOSE to do that for me! I am so thankful to have a Savior who sees me, understands me, knows me, and loves me so much that he not only died for me, but he lived “in the trenches” for me.
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I love this reading. It helps get my mind back to the fact, that yes, I will have those temptations to go back to sinful things, but through Christ I can and will prevail against it.
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Powerful reading. Praise God
Praying for you, Mia! I share a fear of anesthesia, so I know exactly what to pray for.
I love that yesterdays devotional and todays both mentioned that Jesus is always with us & He empathizes with us. It makes Him feel so much closer.
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Praying for you Mia! Churchmouse what excellent advice! Praise Jesus He is so good
Sometimes when I read the temptations the Lord went through, while being hungry and alone (Woe to Him that is alone!), I see the mental strength and perfect confidence in the power of God that our Lord had. These temptations are still how the devil attacks the mind of a believer now. Matthew Henry’s commentaries addressed these 3 temptations as Satan’s assaults. Strong word. The one when Satan asked the Lord to cast himself off the cliff is a true assault—it’s a suicide temptation, asking the Lord to be his own murderer to see if the angels will catch Him (tempt Him to violate the 5th commandment)- just pure wickedness under disguise. I find this comment of Matthew Henry true and a bit funny :It is true, God has promised the protection of angels, to encourage us to trust him, not to tempt him; as far as the promise of God’s presence with us, so far the promise of the angels’ ministration goes, but no further: “They shall keep thee when thou goest on the ground, where thy way lies, but not if thou wilt presume to fly in the air.” The word of God is our sword, and faith in that word is our shield; we should therefore be mighty in the scriptures, and go in that might, go forth, and go on, in our spiritual warfare, know what is written, for it is for our learning, for our use. Note, Those are well armed against the strongest temptations that are full of the Holy Ghost. He was full of the Holy Ghost, who had descended on him like a dove. He had now greater measures of the gifts, graces, and comforts, of the Holy Ghost than ever before. Thus he was prepared for this combat. By going into the wilderness, Jesus showed Himself perfectly indifferent to the world, so by his fasting he showed himself perfectly indifferent to the body; and Satan cannot easily take hold of those who are thus loosened from, and dead to, the world and the flesh. The more we keep under the body, and bring it into subjection, the less advantage Satan has against us.”
Lifting prayer requests to the Lord of Grace:
@PAMC – praying for your type II diabetes. May you be set free.
@MARI – healing from dry cough, your foot to be fully healed for running. Congrats on passing your course!
@MIA FAITH-speedy recovery and strength for you/family.
@ALL SHE’s- strength to resist the devil & its cunning temptations (especially mental temptations), to endure well by God’s mercy, and to overcome strong with the Sword & Shield.
Be blessed dear sisters. Happy weekend to all!
Churchmouse thank you for sharing that. It sounds better than my standard “Get behind me devil, I will not see you”. Yours is a more proactive and positive approach.
Lord of All Creation, watch over us as we embark in a new challenge each and every day, even if the challenge is small. We know You will be with us all we have to do is ask. Father thank You for sending Your One and Only Son. Remind us of what this season is about. Amen
Be blessed and sing praises for the season sisters.
I pray I would shine Jesus’ light this Christmas to those around me. I pray the Lord would give me opportunities to do that.
Oh to be face to face with the Lord, My
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I love this so much!!! I want to start doing this. It proves how powerful scripture really is.
Mia, praying in agreement with our SRT sisters lifting you in prayer. Churchmouse thank you for passing on this great advice. Scarlet, thanks for your great devotional today & especially the closing prayer.
Y’all, I have a prayer request too. My doctor wants me to have some new medication that is evidently going to be a challenge to get the insurance company to cover for my type II diabetes. My glucose numbers have been crazy lately. This is new medication on the market so I’m assuming it’s expensive. I have to be careful because other meds cause kidney damage. Could I have your prayers that if this is the right medication for me the Lord will find a way for me to receive it? Thanks everyone.
Hugs & love for a good weekend
MIA – prayers for an easy recovery. I donated my kidney to my son and had never had surgery before. I was in my 50’s. God was faithful! I had so much peace before and after. Pain was minimal without pain meds. I choose not to take them. My son did well also. I pray that you have the same experience through God’s loving care.
I want to avoid getting caught up in the commercial part of Christmas. That my friends and family will see the true reason for the season through my behavior. I pray that I will love like Jesus did.
@Mia Faith praying for you! Hope your surgery goes well and God brings you total healing. What an exciting time for your grandchild!
Good morning and Happy Friday! I’m home today fighting a dry cough that I’ve had for about 3 weeks and FINALLY decided to stay home to rest. After reading today’s devo, my hope and prayer is for my sweet young JW friend. Hoping she will see Jesus and only Jesus in me. We are GREAT friends and one of my very few true friends at my workplace.
Praying peace for you Mia Faith, that your surgery goes smoothly and recovery is switft. God’s got you.
Happy Friday She’s!
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Reading these passages I was thinking how I need to serve God so my family and friends can see my relationship with Him and freedom I have because of it. Praying for others freedom and not to give into temptation.
Amen
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Thank you Jesus for setting us free. May others know this freedom during this Advent season.
How humbling it is to have a God that would come to earth to be human with all that comes with it, hunger, temptation, and more yet be free from sin. Thank you for giving us freedom through Your spirit, Lord. Mia, prayers for a successful surgery, and comfort through recovery. ❤️
Mia. I pray God gives you the peace beyond all understanding. I pray for your surgeon, anesthesiologist, and medical staff to work skillfully and flawlessly if it is Thy will. In His Almighty name, Amen.
Jesus comes to meet me, restore me, free me, protect me and guide me. I’m so thankful for these truths.
Praying for you Mia Faith. God is good! Praise for your grandchild! ❤️
Blessings to all today! ❤️
The thing that stuck out to me today was that it is the Holy Spirit that gives power and freedom. Satan tried to mimic the Holy Spirit. Yet, his promises leave us empty. May our hearts be tuned to the Lord this morning. @Mia — blessings and peace to you!! <3 praying God's peace over you.
Just prayed for you Mia. Thanking God that you are not alone and He is for you.
Churchmouse, thanking for sharing those words of wisdom from your mentor. I have written them down and will respond with God’s Word when I am doubting Who He is or what He can do. Mia, praying for God’s peace over you and for His healing touch. I am loving this advent study so much that it’s easy to jump out of bed in the morning! Have a blessed day sisters.
Jesus withstanding satan says it all about His true character.
So grateful to have the all powerful protection of the most powerful loving being in the entire universe. God is so good
Prayers lifted for all spoken and unspoken heart cries. May the peace of Jesus be upon you. May the Spirit of our Lord bless you. May the mercy and hope of Him dwell richly in you. Jesus come and bring healing and comfort as You will to us. Let our hearts let go of worry and be filled with Your light and truth. No matter where we are, no matter what we do, let us remember You are with us. Let us remember we are freed from the bondage of this world. Even if we feel the heavy weight of life, take the yoke upon You as we rest in Your strength. May we resist the enemy by Your Word and by Your testimony. Lord have mercy. MARANATHA. Amen.
Jehovah Rapha we praise you for being our healer, we praise you! You are the alpha and omega!!! Please forgive us for the moments that we allow fear to overtake us. We know that you are Almighty. Lord we ask that you meet Mia where she is right now. We ask that you comfort her and remind her that you will never leave nor forsake her. Guide the surgeons hands throughout the procedure and give wisdom to the anesthesiologist as he/she puts her under for surgery. As always Lord we ask that your will be done in all situations in our lives. We thank you for what you have and will do in our lives in the name of Jesus Amen!
Churchmouse what phenomenal advice. I am taking that to heart for myself.
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Again, I’m struck by how much God wants us to be free and the lengths He goes to for that to be possible. ❤️
Mia, praying for you, for God to wrap his arms around you, and for complete healing!
Praying for you now
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Praying Mia
Jesus came to set us free and restore sight to the blind – what enslaves me and what am I blinded to? Lord, help me keep my eyes on you when tempted to turn to other things, open my eyes to see things as they are and not as the evil one has dressed them up to be.
MIA FAITH – praying for you as you go through the surgery
MICHELLE BAIER, ELIZABETH OSTER & NITZ – thank you for your testimonies!
CHURCHMOUSE – praying for your friends in this painful time
Praying for all of us really as there are so many things that enslave us that we don’t see and things we can’t seem to turn loose of, addictions, anxiety, bitterness, wrong choices – specifically praying for SUSAN LINCKS, KIMBERLY Z, BRIANNA PARKER, J LYNN, EMILY VAHLE
LEXI B – praying for Christy’s family
CRYSTAL ACEVEDO – since you’ve repented, you are truly forgiven, Jesus paid it all. Praying you forgive yourself and move past the shame. To some extent I think shame always hovers in the back of our minds and I have to remind myself that I am forgiven, am seeking God’s path for me and will not walk the path of those sins again.
@Mia praying for your surgery and a speedy recovery!
@Angie Mills thank you for all the thought-provoking questions
So thankful that “Jesus chose to serve rather than oppress. He used His infinite power to save His enemies. He came to set them – and us – free.” May I love and live like Jesus did.
So thankful for the truth of Hebrews 4:16 that we can approach God’s throne boldly.
I hope everyone has a blessed weekend <3
Praying for you
Praying for you now! And praise God for your grandchild!!!!
God’s freedom is the restoration of what is now broken to that which will be new and whole and complete. His is the restoration of those in bondage and captivity to freedom. His is the restoration of darkness to light. From what specific sins or brokenness has God freed me?
We become free from sin’s bondage when we repent of our sins and believe the good news. We must turn from our thoughts, actions, attitudes, and loves that do not please God and embrace the thoughts, actions, attitudes, and loves that do please God. We must not only assent in our minds to the good news that Jesus came from heaven to earth to die in our place the death that was meant for us because of our sin. We must also put the good news of the salvation Jesus gives us into practice. We must know we are free from our sins and live out that truth. How am I living out the truth that I am free from my old sinful nature? How am I living as if I were still in bondage to my old sinful nature and had to obey it?
Our freedom should cause us to glorify God. How am I using my life to glorify God?
Because freedom is found in Jesus, we remain free when we remain in Jesus, by walking in step with the Spirit. When we give ourselves over to sin, we become enslaved to it and we will be found in bondage to our sin. When people look at the way I live, do they see one who is free from sin’s bondage or one who is still enslaved to sin?
Jesus is God. He has divine power over everything. Yet, He willingly humbled Himself and submitted Himself to become a man. The Infinite became finite. The Omnipotent became weak. The Omnipresent became one limited by time and location. The King of kings and Lord of All became One who obeyed the will of His Father. The One who spoke the Scriptures submitted Himself to its authority. If Jesus who is free from sin willingly submitted Himself to Scripture’s authority, especially when He was tempted, how much more ought we, who are prone to sin, willingly submit to Scripture’s authority. How am I submitting myself to Scripture’s authority? What is my heart attitude toward God’s Word? How am I ingesting His Word so that I am able to stand during temptation and attacks?
After today’s reading, I find I am reflecting on the gift of freedom from temptation. This has been my struggle, and I needed the reminder that even Jesus faced temptation. He was born to set me free-free from temptation. Praise God!
“ Let’s pray that our families will recognize and delight in the power of the His Spirit within us, and that we will use our new life in Him to love and live like Jesus did. ”
Father, this I pray! Amen.
Lord would you calm Mia’s fears today. Give her reassurance that You are in the operating room with her. Thank you that she is able to get this surgery. Help her to put aside worst case scenarios and rest in the healing that is to come. Amen
Lifting you in prayer Mia for peace and His undeniable presence and a perfect healing outcome. In Jesus name, Amen. Thank You Father for knowing the cries of our hearts.
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MIA I am praying for you now. I know how scary the thought of surgery and recovery is. Press in to Jesus.
CHURCHMOUSE thank you for sharing those words of wisdom from your friend.
Blessings to you all!
Praying for you today Mia!
Good morning ladies! May I request prayer? I am having a three hour surgery this morning and I admit to being a bit terrified of the anesthesia (I’ve watched too many doctor shows)! Please pray it all goes smoothly with no complications. Pray for complete and speedy healing (the recovery is expected to be rough). And as a praise, one of my grandchildren accepted Jesus as his Savior yesterday!!! Answer to prayer!
Many many years ago I was being mentored by an older woman in the church. She suggested that when I’m tempted to doubt God is Who He says He is or can do what He says He will do, I should respond as Jesus did when faced by Satan in the desert. Speak the Word. Start with the Truth, not the questions or doubts or fears or skepticisms. Don’t focus on the issue as the devil would try to entice you. Dwell on the answer which is always found in His character and His promises. She told me to pray for a willingness to trust Him completely and to ask for strength and peace. This helped me to stand firm and to memorize Scripture.
Good morning ladies! May I request prayer? I am having a three hour surgery this morning and I admit to being a bit terrified of the anesthesia (I’ve watched too many doctor shows)! Please pray it all goes smoothly with no complications. Pray for complete and speedy healing (the recovery is expected to be rough).
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Love this version of this beautiful hymn!
https://youtu.be/NOxJFN-9_vs
Yes, Scarlet, “Let’s pray that our families will recognize and delight in the power of the His Spirit within us, and that we will use our new life in Him to love and live like Jesus did.”
From HRT:
“Israel’s experience is humanity’s story in microcosm. Because of sin, all humanity was exiled from home, under the oppression of dark spiritual powers, despairing of our separation from what is good and beautiful and true. This problem is a spiritual reality, as much as it is a physical one. In sin, we’re exiled from the presence of God, our source of life and light. We are at odds with ourselves and those around us.
But we are not without hope. …Jesus Christ was Israel’s hope-made flesh, the living embodiment of God’s promise to His people. Jesus’s work on the cross brought humanity’s exile in sin to an end; through Him, we become citizens of that place for which we all so desperately long.
The Advent season is an opportunity to acknowledge our exile’s enduring state and celebrate our Redeemer’s coming. Advent is the long dark night that precedes the day, overwhelming and all-consuming but powerless against those first rays of light. Like the exiles in Babylon, we must recognize the reality of our exile, the specter of sin which threatens to overtake us, and the cycles of brokenness at work in the world around us. We cannot ignore these realities. Instead, Advent invites us to confront these realities with hope. The living hope embodied in our Redeemer-King, the only One who can sympathize with our weakness and knows all too well the harsh sting of death. In Him lies our redemption; through His advent, all will be made whole.”
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❤️ so grateful today