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This is one question many Christians find themselves asking sometimes. Many people including Christians, are afraid of liberty. They dread the thought of having too much liberty themselves; sometimes even preventing other people especially younger people have too much liberty. Reasons being, they focus on the dangers associated which such levels of liberty. Yet the question still bears on my mind,

Why wouldn't people want to be free?

Remember the man Jesus healed at the Sheep Gate Pool? The man hae been a cripple for 38years and had come to the pool to be healed. John wrote, "When Jesus saw him lying there, and knew that he had been in that condition a long time,He said to him, 'Do you want to be made well?' " (John 5:6)

Many would say the question posed by Jesus appears dumb, reasons being He knew already what the man wanted but as a matter of fact, most people decide to stay the way they are. There are reasons, sometimes even unconscious ones, people make debilitating decisions about their lives. Jesus wont heal you of that ailment if you do not want it. He doesn't force His blessings on you but rather waits till you desire and request it from Him.

That is no less true in the area of Christian freedom. People are living in a prison and have been given the key to their cell door, yet they hide the key and pretend that nothing can be done. The question: Why?
I suspect there are many reasons why people don't unlock the door, but I'd mention just a few.

• The security of the cell

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First, there is a certain amount of security in being a prisoner. Recall what God's people said to moses as they stood on the shores of the Red Sea? They didn't bother to thank him for leading them out of slavery, instead they muttered and complained.

And they said unto Moses, Because there were no graves in Egypt, hast thou taken us away to die in the wilderness? wherefore hast thou dealt thus with us, to carry us forth out of Egypt?
Is not this the word that we did tell thee in Egypt, saying, Let us alone, that we may serve the Egyptians? For it had been better for us to serve the Egyptians, than that we should die in the wilderness.

-Exodus 14:11-12

All of us like to be secure. Most of the times, people assume the walls of such prison keep out the bad things they fear. The problem is that our need for security sometimes robs us of our heritage of freedom. Wouldn't we all like to have adequate medical care, free clothing, being safe from outsiders. The answer is yes but l forever?
That's called a prison
Our counterfeit Christian faith can become a prison, we can let someone else think for us, know and live by the rules and be secure-looking,tginking and acting like prisoners but this is totally inappropriate.

• Getting what we deserve.

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Secondly, a lot of us won't use Jesus' key to get out of such prison because we think we deserve to stay there. They have drawn a false conclusion from a fact. The false conclusion is "all will be punished"

For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God

-Romans 3:23

We assume sin and punishment go together -"all have sinned so all will be punished"'-and send ourselves to the prison of punishment. We forget that Christ, in His role as priest, received the punishment for sin and set the prisoners free. We are free because Christ on the cross made us free, we don't have to dwell in tears, because He took everything for our sake.

• Playing it safe.

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The third reason is that most Christians are afraid of risks. Paul said, "For God has not given us a spirit of fear " (2 Timothy 1:7). A lot of people are not free because they are afraid to take risks. But it shouldn't be so. You never may know how exciting it is to be free until despite your fear, you step out in that freedom. You'll make a wonderful discovery: that there's really s God and everything you were so scared about didn't fall apart. God would be there providing the safety net and might even end up asking yourself why you hadn't done it before.

• Keeping control.

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The fourth reason why we still remain in a prison environment is that we want to be in control. When you are in a prison, your environment is small and so are the demands hence you think, 'I can control a prison cell'
God is in control in the prison cell and in the castle. He controls our coming in and going out, wherever we are. Why not go out into the sunshine and let Him worry about controlling things? He is our father, He wants to be in charge of our affairs. Why dont we just give him the chance to do so and see marvellous things happen in our lives.

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Freedom isn't something we can share if we aren't free ourselves. Until we see it,we can't show it. It just like a swimmer who thinks he can swim when he can't and tries to do just that, the end results is that he drowns.

The problem is that many Christians are caught in a trap of Christian bondage -prison like environment. It could be the prison of doubt, of worry or anxiety or of fear. If you are trapped in seaweed fifteen feet under the water and drowning, you cant swim until you get free from the seaweed. But if you are free, you will find that you have anotger kind of freedom, and that is the freedom to be obedient to the One who gave you your freedom.

Jesus turned water into wine and saved the day; His first miracle. If you are a Christian, Jesus has given you the wonderful, heady and exciting wine of freedom. Be sure you do not turn it back into water

Thanks for reading through and God bless you!