Costly Freedom
If you want to enjoy freedom, you must purchase a ticket to it. Jesus purchased a ticket for your entrance, but you must purchase your own ticket if you want to enjoy living your freedom. He is to you the Door, and He must also become to you the Way. The basketball players who actually become professionals are the ones who are willing to trade their lives as they know them for that life they desire. The guitarists who gain thousands of fans are the ones who have traded their lives for future lives that include the ability to play guitar.
Practice, study, improvement, pain, loss of other pleasures – these are some of the costs of freedom. It takes years to build some roads so that we can cruise along at the speed of 70 miles per hour. Listen to the Spirit as He stirs you with desires and then surrender to Him as He empowers you with the power to purchase the ticket that will give you access to the freedom to live the fulfillment of those desires.
Remember that the Lord your God led you on the entire journey these 40 years in the wilderness, so that He might humble you and test you to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep His commands. He humbled you by letting you go hungry; then He gave you manna to eat, which you and your fathers had not known, so that you might learn that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord. Your clothing did not wear out, and your feet did not swell these 40 years. Keep in mind that the Lord your God has been disciplining you just as a man disciplines his son. So keep the commands of the Lord your God by walking in His ways and fearing Him. For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land, a land with streams of water, springs, and deep water sources, flowing in both valleys and hills; a land of wheat, barley, vines, figs, and pomegranates; a land of olive oil and honey; a land where you will eat food without shortage, where you will lack nothing; a land whose rocks are iron and from whose hills you will mine copper. When you eat and are full, you will praise the Lord your God for the good land He has given you.
(Deuteronomy 8:2-10 Holman Christian Standard Bible ©®)