I have written numerous times in the past months about the book, Freedom Starts Today. It is a 90 day journal and accountability structure which has provided a good deal of insights for myself as well as for the others using it. I am in the process of going through it for the second time. Each day one is to write a prayer of commitment to God regarding whatever topic (addiction/hurt/hang-up) you are addressing in your life at the time. One then gives this same message of commitment to their sponsor/accountability partner. As I’m going through this the 2nd time I’m using a post-it note to write my commitment and placing it over the one from 90 days ago. Today, as I began to write my commitment, I had a huge reminder to thank God and celebrate.

The devotional message of today was about the damage that old, deep roots can cause. The author illustrates this with an oak tree that was growing next to his home and the internal damage the roots were doing to his house’s structure. In order to address this he needed to not only cut down the tree but kill the roots. Only God’s Holy Spirit within us could perform such a surgery. I had been told in my past counseling that I may never be free of these roots within me due to the depth of them within. (I could write another book about this entire process).

In reading today’s message again I realized that God’s Spirit has been killing these deep roots within me. It has been a process of believing He cares enough for me to do this and I care enough for me that I can believe He will. I not only feel a freedom from temptation I’ve not known before, but I can also use this freedom to confront temptation and say that I don’t need to succumb to it. “Get thee hence Satan!” I can state this in confidence because Christ within me is my Rock like never before!