[Reading Notes] How to Be Free by Jim Wilson

I listened to the audiobook version on Canon+.

How to Be Free by Jim & Bessie Wilson was my intentional first finish of the year. It’s not long, but I’d never actually read it before, which seems wrong for someone living in Moscow. I knew this book was a go-to reference and foundational piece for the local church community here, and I knew the gist, but finally rectified my reading gap.

Jim Wilson is incisive and blunt, but in a kind, straightforward, give-Scripture-to-you-straight way. Probably 1/3 of the words in the book (which isn’t long and is actually a collection of essays: How to be free from…bitterness, anger, addiction, fear, anxiety, cussing, etc.) are Bible verses simply stated as givens, not explained away or softened at all.

His overarching approach is that you might be stuck in sin because you don’t believe what God says. He’ll tell you what God says and then expect you not only to believe it, but do it. Straightforward.

It is a refreshing take in a world that wants to soften or sympathize unduly. Wilson asks instead for you to forsake sin. He gives you God on one side and your sin on the other and reminds you that your actions are a choice between the two. Which do you love more? Which do you want more? If you want God, He provides the way to Himself and makes change possible. If you love yourself and your sin more, then yes, no one should be shocked that you’re stuck with it and its consequences.

So the world has two solutions. Keep the bitterness in and make yourself sick, or let it out and spread the sickness around. God’s solution is to dig up the root. Get rid of it. But this takes the grace of God. A man must know the Lord Jesus Christ to be able to do this. He is the source of grace. Christians should not use the world’s solutions for bitterness. When Christians copy the world, they have two poor choices. The Bible says to get rid of all bitterness. You must not keep it in, and you must not share it. Surrender it to the Father, through the Son.

If you want the mirror of God’s Word held up to confront your pet sins, if you’re tired of letting yourself off the hook with soft words, then this is the book for you.

Repent. Rejoice. Repeat.

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