I receive two news updates in my email inbox each day, one from a local source and another national. I would be lying if I talked about all the “good news” they send. Each day lately, it seems the news gets worse. Recent news talked about how a warming world affects people across different continents with hunger, how the virus endangers at-risk children, the challenges of rural policing, and the adjusted upward estimate for destructive hurricanes this year. None of which I would call good news.
Still, there is good news. It comes from a different source. “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 HCSB]
Our Savior and LORD, Christ Jesus, brought to us the Spirit of the Living God. He came anointed with good news for the poor (and before God we are ALL poor). He brought healing to those who are brokenhearted, liberty to those held captive by sin, shame and guilt, and freedom to those in bondage to bitterness, addictions, hatred, and distress.
If there was ever a green pasture to refresh us during all this bad news, it is the Good News of our rescue. We have been set free. The Good News, the anointing of the Spirit of the LORD God has come and is available to us – if we want it. If we remain in bondage to anything, it is our own choice to do so.
I realize that is a difficult, even a hard statement – that remaining in bondage is by our choice. As difficult as it is, it is also true. Freedom is offered to us, but it is not forced upon us. We can choose to be free, or we can choose to remain as we are. Of course, I also know that it is not always easy to choose freedom, liberty, good news; we must work with the Spirit of the Living God for that freedom. But those things that are the most difficult are usually the most valuable.
Do we want to be free? Do we want to lie down in those green pastures of Good News? Or would we prefer to remain in the barren wasteland of brokenness? The choice really is ours.
