If You Want Your Whole Life to Get Better
Matt and I walked past a refrigerator in Costco a couple of days ago.
“Look at that nice fridge,” I said. “It only costs $1000.”
In the last few months, he has joined me in listening to the Ramsey podcasts, and we’ve really enjoyed talking through the phone calls they take. It’s a fun game to listen to a caller talk about his financial woes or success and come up with our own response before the Ramsey personalities have a chance to answer. We know we’ve really learned about finances when we come up with the same answer the Ramsey folks do and can explain our response.
One day we both listened to this woman call in and go on and on about her mountain of debt and all of the frustrating expenses that kept coming up. She was in obvious distress. She said her refrigerator went out, and she had to go into debt to buy a $3000 new fridge. Matt and I both had a cow. A $3000 fridge when you’re dying underneath your debt load? Are you kidding me? This woman was frustrated with debt but kept taking on more of it.
The question needs to be asked: How’s that workin’ for ya?
I came across the best passage in Romans 6 and have been meditating on it constantly: For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed?
Paul is asking, “Being completely free from the control of righteousness? How’s that workin’ for ya?”
What we all want, especially Americans, is to be free. No restraint. Nothing holding us back. Free to buy what we want when we want it. Free to shack up with a partner with no long-term commitment. Free to eat what sounds good and go back for seconds. But being free in regard to righteousness? Where does that get a person? Deeper in debt. Disappointed in relationships. Fighting health issues that could have been avoided.
I can tell you the benefits of giving up freedom and choosing to be a slave of righteousness. It means living in control of your money and sleeping better at night. It means having an emergency savings account and being your own bank when the unexpected happens. It means celebrating decades of joyful marriage with the same man you made vows to in your early 20s. It means feeling energetic because you’re eating nutritious food and limiting how much. It means going to church on Sundays when you could be out playing and instead enjoying indescribably sweet fellowship with other believers. This is the fruit of slavery to righteousness.
We live in Montana, so summer is a very special time when we actually get to enjoy some fresh fruit that grows here. Flathead Lake is flanked by cherry orchards, and we enjoy fresh huckleberries in July. Right now we’re eagerly watching our blackberry and raspberry bushes start to come alive with green leaves. We don’t have all of the fruit trees you southerners enjoy year ‘round. I remember Matt talking about visiting his grandma in California when he was young and eating avocados straight off of the tree. But fruit is a precious commodity where we live.
Let’s talk fruit. Are you still living free from the restraining power of righteousness? What fruit are you getting from that way of life? Is it everything you hoped it would be?
A $3000 fridge. I mean, that would sure be nice. But putting it on a credit card? Not having the control to do what is right and save up to pay cash for maybe a used fridge? No thanks. Here’s what my prayer has been lately: Jesus, give me the control of righteousness every day, all day. I’ll take that over the “freedom” of doing whatever I want and whatever feels good in the moment, because I have tasted the fruit of this glorious enslavement.
Time to evaluate the fruit in your life. Is it leading to death or leading to eternal life? Is it making you miserable or making your whole life better in every way? Where do you need to give up the deceivingly precious freedom that so many people in our culture chase with abandon and throw yourself instead under the control of the righteousness of God?