Daily EncouragementSample

“I . . . enabled you to walk with heads held high.” What a delightful translation, and what a perfect description of the outward demeanour of a people set free from slavery! In redeeming this people from Egypt the Lord restored their true human dignity and set them free, breaking the bars of the yoke which had bowed their heads in servile fear.

Those who have experienced rebirth through Christ are enabled “to walk with heads held high.” Their manner does not express pride, but rather the glad freedom of those made in the image of God. Their lives exhibit the uprightness of integrity and purity. Knowing that they have been bought with a price, they glorify God in their bodies (1 Cor. 6:19-20). They can look the world in the face because they are not ashamed of their Lord and his gospel and they have no doubts about his power to protect them. (2 Tim. 1:8,11,12). They know the truth and the truth has set them free (John 8:32).

The paradox about serving the Lord is that while we are free, we are at the same time slaves. Martin Luther said, “The Christian man is the most free lord of all; the Christian man is the true servant of all.” We serve “with heads held high” because “his service is perfect freedom.”