We Are Free

When Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden, their punishment was death, and that is our punishment too. Imagine that you are sitting in a jail cell, condemned to death. If it wasn't bad enough that you are trapped in a cell, you are also chained to the wall, the chains made out of every lie that Satan has told you of who you are, who God is, ect. Jesus came to serve our death sentence, and when you believe in him, you jail cell is open and you can walk out of the sin that was with you in that cell. The thing is that you are still chained to the wall by Satan, still a prisoner to what he tells you. Jesus not only freed you from that cell, but he sent the Holy Spirit to help you change your thinking and actions to break those chains and truly set you free. 

We all struggle with this, because we all have something that is able to get under our skin and trap us in these chains. 2 Corinthians 12:7b says, "Therefore, in order to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me." This is Paul writing, talking about how he, the guy who wrote most of the New Testament, deals with a thorn, something there that Satan is using to try to hold us back. If we read on in the passage, we even see Paul begging three times with God to take it away. Now we each have our own set of thorns that the devil uses to keep us bound in chains.

THINGS THAT KEEP US CHAINED DOWN

-not pretty enough                                                                          -too young

-not smart enough                                                                          -worthless

-failure                                                                                              -lack of time

-laziness                                                                                            -excuses

These are only a few things that could be a thorn in our side. We each have our own thorns, and God knows what each is for every one of us. 2 Corinthians 12:9 says, “But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.” God wants to help you unchain yourself, for he knows that you can’t do it alone. Paul is actually rejoicing hear, because his weakness and his chains is allowing Christ power to be with him helping him. When you allow God to help you break these chains, he is right beside you, working next to you. As Christians, we are free from the cell we were in, and we are free from the chains that hold us down, we just need to allow the Lord to do his amazing work in our lives, breaking every chain of bandage in our life.

Dear Heavenly Father,

Thank you for your Son who came down to die for us so that we may be free. I pray that you will come into my life, and break the chains that are bonding me with my past. Thank you for being perfect in my weakness, and that even in my lowest points of life, you still love me. Amen.