Today is the 175th birthday of Texas. At least that’s what I wrote yesterday on Twitter. Funny, my declaration about Texas got more retweets than nearly anything else I’ve put out there in a while.

But one of the responses corrected me. My daughter replied and reminded me that today is the day Texas declared independence. It wasn’t until later that the Alamo fell, and even later that freedom was won.

I thought about that today on my run and realized the same was true for the United States. Our nation’s “birthday” celebrates when we declared freedom. Freedom was actually won years later. There seems to be a pattern in a lot of nations’ histories:

Freedom has to be declared before it can be won.

I think it’s an axiom of the spiritual realm. In order to be free, you have to declare it before you have it.

Are you waiting until things come together before stepping out in faith? Are you hoping that one day you will magically realize a new destiny?

Freedom is out there for you. A bigger future. An expanded destiny.

But you must declare it before you ever have it.

Name your future. Step into new freedom with God. Yes, there will be hard work, battles, and time will pass before it’s realized. But there’s a bigger dream out there for you.

And God wants you to declare it today.