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Encouraging Heroes. You can be one too.

Breaking Free by Beth Moore is a wonderful Bible study. The subtitle for the book is Making Liberty in Christ a Reality in Life. This is the workbook version, and it’s broken up into ten weeks of lessons. This study definitely takes some effort to complete, but I highly recommend it.


Beth Moore is a Bible teacher in Houston Texas, and she says that “her calling is Bible literacy: guiding believers to love and live God’s word.” I definitely see that. The entire study is centered on Isaiah 61:1-4 but Moore takes you all over the Bible and it’s just plain amazing how she ties verses together. For example, in the second week we consider the word glory and several New Testament uses. Then she explains the Greek word for glory in those references and explains what it means in understandable terms.

I remember saying Wow to myself several times in the study as connections were made and verses explained that I had never really considered before. One that really stands out to me is the explanation of the phrase “I’ve got peace like a river”. I have sung about that, heard it used in sermons and so on, but never really stopped to consider the meaning of the phrase. Moore explains that rivers are moving streams of water, that they’re fresh water fed by springs or tributary streams, and that they begin and end with a body of water. Then she connects that to the life of the believer: just as a river is a moving stream, so does the believer’s life move and change. The peace being described

“can be retained while life twists and turns and rolls over boulders”.

Just as a river is fed by tributary streams or springs, so is the believer to experience peace by being fed with the Holy Spirit and a steady stream of God’s Word. And finally, just as rivers begin and end with a body of water, so too does peace

“flow from a continuous connection with the upland Source, Jesus Christ, and a timely reminder that this life will ultimately spill out into a glorious eternal life”.

Week 9 really got my attention as well, when Moore talks about how old thoughts and lies can separate us from God. When we focus on those thoughts and lies they can become captivating and eventually imprison us in our own cell. Moore says

“Satan does not have the power or authority to lock believers in a prison of oppression. He works overtime too talk us into staying because he lacks the power to keep us there.”

In other words, if I recognize the lies, I can remove them and walk on out of that cell. It may not be easy or quick, but I have the power to be free.

There’s so much more to this study than I’ve been able to discuss here. I do recommend the book to everyone. It is geared a bit toward women, but definitely has so much to say to men as well. Even if you don’t think you’ve got strongholds or oppression in your life, there’s plenty to learn and appreciate in this study.

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