Yes, today can be our Independence Day. Today we can be thankful that we are free to reaffirm our connection with Jesus once again. We can observe others who will reflect back to us how well we're following the Lord by the fruit of the relationship. If the Lord has touched our hearts, then the fruit of the relationship is genuine love and forgiveness. If not, then the fruit is indifference or even outright defensiveness. Yes, we are free to decide that what we see in others mirrors our hearts' condition. Today, Independence Day, we bring the truth home where it belongs. It is no longer true that YOU are the cause of all my problems. It is no longer true that YOU defeat all my purposes, YOU stand in the way of all my schemes, YOU are the enemy and I am the man on the white horse, wearing the white hat. This is my Independence Day and I recognize that as long as YOU are the cause of my problems, I am not independent, but quite dependent: Dependent on the impossible task of changing you and changing my world in order to have peace of mind.

Today is Independence Day. I receive my independence not by changing the world, or you, but by reaffirming my relationship with Christ again and again, for each situation that threatens my peace, and whenever the dark clouds reappear. In my walk with Jesus, it is He that changes my perception of the world, not me. It is humbling to know that it is He that teaches me how to pray, when I can't even find the words. It is He that changes my perception of you. It is never done by my will alone but only by Him, for me. Today, I recognize that through Christ, I am saved from having to put up with irritations from anyone. Through Jesus, I am no longer a victim of this world or its inhabitants. Today, my freedom is found in my oneness in the Lord and His children, not in trying to escape from either.

As I look around, today, I sense more than ever, that an alien has landed and its purpose is to take over the planet, by destroying everything it can with its laser beams. This alien is the carnal self. We have been asking for it to come, sending probes to all corners of the universe, in hopes that it could save us, but it can't. Its life depends on our believing that all problems can be solved, externally. Its life depends on our "throwing stones" at something. Because we refuse to see ourselves as empowered children of the most high God, we are doomed to see others as the cause of all our problems. This can be very disheartening. Today we declare our independence from that type of scenario. Today we bring it home. Today we are strong enough to get down on our knees and humbly give it all to the Lord, who will even show us how to pray and take our hearts and mold them in His hands. His Holy Spirit will heal the problems where they really lay, not where we think they are.

It is no easy task to ask the Lord to free us from the carnal self. There is a strong desire to hold onto it because of our pride. Remember, though, it is the very handle Satan grabs a hold of when he needs another servant for his dark kingdom. The carnal self teaches fear and separation covertly so that we don't recognize the source. It is continually manipulating our world, protecting its own image. To do this, it must constantly send out press releases to our minds, indicating that it has our best interests at heart. All the while, it stokes the fires of sin and guilt within (which Jesus died to save us from, by the way), hoping to raise our ire, but not so much that we would put it out, seeking self-preservation. The carnal self must live while everyone else must die. It leads us on a scavenger hunt, in which we wander the earth in search of the solutions to our problems, seeking but not finding. On and on we press--perhaps around the next bend--perhaps in the next state, country, continent, on and on we roam. We think we see our enemy but as soon as we raise our weapon to kill him, he disappears. But wait, our enemy is over there, now. Even as our carnal self urges our feet to scamper after him, he's gone. So, on and on we travel, getting wearier and wearier, we search for the enemy, never realizing for a second that there is no enemy, outside us. Never realizing even for a second that it is the one who is telling us where the enemy resides, who is really our enemy. Never recognizing the cleverness with which our carnal self disguises his motives and hides behind his lies. It is truly Satan and not even in disguise that tears our hearts apart as we search and search, but never find the true enemy outside our mind.

Today is our day of independence from all of that. The carnal self, so eager to serve Satan, causes us to use tricks and disguises and twisted words and meaningless chatter to sway us his way. Our carnal self, led by Satan, does not have to lead us astray any longer. I envision Harrison Ford, in one of the Raider's of the Lost Ark movies. He is confronted with a sword twirling, fancy footed, black robed enemy and he was especially tired after a physical battle he had just been in. With a sigh, he pulls his gun and just shoots him. Forget the entire fancy footed, sword twirling stuff the carnal self is doing to lead us into temptation. Just shoot him. Again, this is not done by our will but by humbling ourselves before the Lord in complete, child-like trust in Him. He does it. With God all things are possible. The carnal self is no longer a fire-breathing dragon. It is a puff of smoke. In Jesus' mighty name and awesome power, it is gone, because instead of turning to the carnal world of appearances, we turned to God.

Our Independence Day is here, now. God bless America and God bless the world. And God bless each of us, as we assume our new positions. Jesus is the guardian of our peace and the Savior of our souls. If in Him we are dependent, then we have every reason to celebrate our independence day and our freedom.  

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