Insight for Today
A Daily Devotional by Pastor Chuck Swindoll

Giving Yourself Permission

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Back when I was in grade school, it was always a special treat when the teacher gave the class permission to do something unusual. I remember one hot and humid Houston afternoon when she gave everyone permission to go barefoot after lunch. We got to pull off our socks, stick 'em in our sneakers, and wiggle our toes all we wanted to. During the afternoon recess that extra freedom added great speed to our softball game on the playground.

Isn't it strange then, now that you and l are grown and have become Christians, how reluctant we are to give ourselves permission to do . . . to think . . . to say . . . to buy and enjoy . . . or to be different and not worry about who may say what?

Even though our God has graciously granted us permission to be free, to have liberty, to break the chains of rigidity, and to enjoy much of this life, many in His family use such strange reasoning: "I mean, after all, what would people say?" or "Well, I wasn't raised to enjoy life; I was taught to be more conservative, more responsible and serious than that." So goes the persuasion of an oversensitive conscience trained in the school of negativism.

Tragic. No, worse than that, it is downright unbiblical.

Have we forgotten the promise, "where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty" (2 Cor. 3:17)? Let that sink in. The Spirit of the Lord has provided long-awaited liberty. Give yourself permission to lift those wings and feel the exhilaration of a soaring lifestyle.

Allow the green light of grace to shine brighter than the amber light of caution or the red light of don't.