Freedom gone wrong?

Reading: Deuteronomy 31-32 and Galatians 5

Scripture: Galatians 5:13-14, For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

Thoughts: When in my 20s I found it easy and appealing to use my freedom as opportunity for my flesh. I spent time indulging in many of the fleshly desires that draw many in their early adulthood. Drugs, sex, and alcohol, permeated my life for nearly a decade, when in that frame of mind and allowing your bodily desires lead it is near impossible to think of others. The law is there to show us our inadequacy and Christ came to show us how to walk in love, when we can love our neighbors and he loves and as we love ourselves we fulfill the law through his sacrifice. How are we using the freedom that he had given to us through the death and resurrection of his Son? 

Prayer: Father God, your grace and mercy are sufficient for me and you have paid the price that I may be called a son. I thank you that you are still working in my life and that you helped me to release and move from those things that draw me away. I ask that you continue to work in my life removing the places where I still use my freedom for my flesh.