break free from those chains of bondage

"Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which

Christ has made us free, and do not be

entangled again with a yoke of bondage."

(Galatians 5:1)

When elephants are being trained in the circus, they are chained and shackled to a stake when they are just babies. The chains are strong enough at that point to restrain them and keep them from breaking free. As they pull and tug on the chain to no avail, they soon learn that their efforts are futile and soon they don't resist the chains as much.

As they grow bigger and stronger, the chains and shackles don't have to be exchanged for more powerful ones. The elephants have grown so used to the chains holding them, that they just assume that they can't escape and therefore they don't even try.

Do we live like that at times? Are we letting the chains and shackles of this world tether us so tightly to those areas of sin and strongholds in our lives, that we have ceased to even tug and pull on them in any attempt to break free?

Have we grown so comfortable in our bondage that we are living defeated and hopeless lives?

Oh, my sweet friends, I think the answer to those questions is a resounding "yes!". I think that we have grown so accustomed to our chained-up state that we just sit back and remain shackled to sin.

Why do we choose to live as captives when we have been given the glorious key to freedom?  As Christians, our battle has already been fought and won for us. Our state of bondage was overcome on the Cross at Calvary.

God freed us from the chains of sin and gave us  Hope through the shed blood of His Son.  When Jesus gave up His life for us, the sacrifice He made was to atone for our sins forever. Those chains of bondage were broken that day and we were given the ability to live victoriously through Jesus.

Whatever is holding you hostage and is binding you up in those chains, isn't worth it.  Whatever is defeating you, burdening you and weighing you down, is keeping you from living in the freedom of a life of Hope and Victory. You will be forever tethered to that dismal and defeated existence unless you allow God to remove the chains so you can be set free!

Oh, my friends, surrender it to Him and let Him loosen those shackles so they fall off. Confess it and lay it at His feet. Repent of it and arise from there washed anew with His mercy and grace. Free from those chains of captivity. Under bondage no more!

Praise You, Jesus. Praise You, that we have the ability to live a life of freedom. We can walk in victory. We have hope. We can be loosed from the things that bind us and experience the true, abundant life that you intend for us.

Oh, Lord help us to walk in the Spirit. Help us to walk in your ways, obey your commandments and be free from the bondage of the world. Thank you, Lord, the because of Your Son, we can be set free from sin and the ties that bind us. We can live in the freedom and victory of a life in Christ.

"And having been set free from sin, you became slaves of righteousness"

(Romans 6:18)

A Little Bondage Perhaps?

I have been studying about bondage and strongholds lately. It's a little funny to me that sometimes we think that we don't have any. Can you imagine? I have actually thought to myself, "I don't have any bondage in my life". Oh, man, was I ever deceiving myself!

I am a perfectionist. It's something that I have always considered a good thing. I mean, I love a very neat house. I just love to clean (really!). Everything in my house has a place and I like them in it.. My husband has told people, that if he get's out of bed at night to go to the bathroom, that I will make up the bed behind him! I just love things to be orderly and sometimes I admit I am a little excessive. My kids will tell me, "Mama, just sit down and relax!". And I wonder why I have high blood pressure...

I have rewritten my LPM scripture memory cards 4 times. I am absolutely not kidding. The first several times, I just couldn't get them to look the way I wanted. Then when I was adding my last scripture, I couldn't find the same kind of pen that I had been using (in different colors of course) so I redid them all. I hope that y'all don't think less of me =)

So as I was studying today and reading "Living Free", guess what just jumped out of the book and into my heart? Perfectionism is a stronghold. It's bondage. Perfectionism is bondage, because it is something that we can't ever obtain. There is only One Perfect being and that is God. If we strive for things that are unattainable, we set ourselves up for failure and disappointment. Then we think that we are unpleasing to God and then our human nature causes us to think that we are spiritual failures. It can cause us to doubt our salvation and it spins us into a vicious cycle.

* we renew our commitment to the Lord
* something happens and we feel like a failure
* we become angry at ourselves for "failing"
* then the feeling of despair sets in

So then our thoughts turn inward and our focus is on our own inadequacy. It begins to exalt itself in our thoughts. So the quest for perfectionism thus becomes the quaking of our spiritual lives and then it becomes the graveyard of our growth process.

"For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ." (2 Corinthians 10:4-5)

This applies to anything in our life that is perhaps taking a stronghold effect on us. We have to realize that we cannot please God by being perfect. If we focus on our sins and our inadequacies, we are not pleasing Him. The only focus that will change our lives is if we steer our focus to God. The more we focus on Him, the less we will focus on ourselves. My over obsessive behavior in essence takes over my ability to keep my sights on Him. If I am too full of my self, there is no room for God.

Our focus has to be in His Word and in prayer. Like the scripture says, we have to take our thoughts captive to Christ and make His thoughts our thoughts. We have to make Him our focus. More of Him, less of me.

Lord, help me to realize that when I think I am trying to strive for perfectionism, I am really striving for the unattainable. Help me to put You first. I want to make Your thoughts, my thoughts. I want my focus to be on You. I want to be more like You, Lord. Help me to break out of the bondage and into the glorious light of freedom!

Stronghold in Christ or Bondage?

“The Lord is my light and my salvation -
whom shall I fear?
The Lord is the stronghold of my life -
of whom shall I be afraid?”
(Psalm 27:1)

In “Living Free”, Beth Moore tells us that the word stronghold appears almost 50 times in the OT as opposed to only 1 time in the NT. I am not really sure why that is the case, but in the Old Testament the word stronghold was used to describe places that the Israelites hid from their enemies in. A place of safety. A stronghold is a fortress or a refuge. The definition says it is a “defensible place”. It means ‘to be strong for’ or ‘to be exalted‘. We can use the term stronghold to refer to a wonderful attribute of God.

David tells us in 2 Samuel 22:3 that the Lord is our stronghold and refuge. In this sense, a stronghold is a good thing. When we rely on God to be the place of safety in our lives - the place of rest - then He becomes our stronghold.

But on the flip side, a stronghold can be just what it says. It can by anything that has ‘strong hold’ on our lives and that isn’t always a good thing. It can represent something false in our lives. A false stronghold is something that goes against the very nature of God. It is in direct opposition to the knowledge of God. It tries to be bigger to us than God is. Simply put -stronghold = bondage. It can cause us to be anxious, overwhelmed, defeated and weary. It steals our focus off of the Lord and it can keep us from living the abundant life in Christ that He desires for us.

“We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.” (2 Cor 10:5)

In order for us to rid ourselves of these false strongholds, we have to rid ourselves of the lies that Satan would have us believe. We have to stand firm in the Truth! The Truth is Jesus.

In order for us to head down the right path we have to listen to the one who has the right directions. If we spend time in God’s Word - the map for our walk - we will have the strength and the knowledge we need to release those strongholds in our lives that are holding us captive.

Let’s trade that stronghold of bondage for a stronghold of freedom in Christ!

“It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.” (Galatians 5:1)