🕊️ PRAY HERE DEVOTION 🕊️ Are You Really Free?

Scripture: John 8:34–36 (NIV)

“Jesus replied, ‘Very truly I tell you, everyone who sins is a slave to sin.

Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever.

So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.’”

Devotion: Have you been set free? Don’t answer that just yet; hold your answer until the end of this devotion.

Sometimes we are not even aware that we are in bondage or a form of slavery. And if a person doesn’t know they’re bound, it can be very difficult for them to seek freedom. Let’s look at the conversation Jesus was having that led up to today’s scripture.

Jesus told the people, “The truth will set you free.” (John 8:31)

Their response was interesting. They said,“We are Abraham’s descendants and have never been slaves of anyone. How can you say that we shall be set free?”(John 8:33)

Pause for a moment, this sounds like a lot of us today. Many people don’t see themselves as needing to be saved or set free. When someone is comfortable living in sin and doesn’t even recognize it as sin, the question becomes, “Set free from what?”

This is where Jesus made it very plain. He explained that everyone who sins is a slave to sin. Whether you feel like a slave or not, if sin is controlling you, you are enslaved to it. That is why stopping on your own feels impossible without God’s help.

Then Jesus gives us hope. He says, “So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.” You may not have realized you were a slave: but if Jesus sets you free, your freedom is real, complete, and lasting.

It doesn’t matter what the struggle is. It doesn’t matter what the bondage looks like. When Jesus, the Son of God, sets you free, you are truly free. No more constant struggle. No more overpowering urges. No more being controlled by what once had power over you.

I know this to be true personally. The things Jesus set me free from, I never went back to. The peace, the ease, and the absence of struggle confirmed it; Jesus did it.

So now I’ll ask you again: are you really free?

If not, Jesus is still in the business of setting people free, for real.

Prayer: Father God, thank You for the freedom that comes through Your Son. Open my eyes to anything in my life that has me bound. I don’t want to just feel free; I want to be free indeed. I surrender every struggle, habit, and hidden bondage to You. Set me free completely and help me walk in that freedom every day.

In Jesus’ name, Amen.