It truly reminds me of all the people that I encounter. So many live freely and then there are others who seem to be living in captivity. It makes me sad that through circumstances that many had no control over that they have been held captive by the acts of others. They didn't choose this hurt and this abuse and it just doesn't seem fair when so many others had a healthy childhood, healthy marriages that some seemed to only have struggle. I know...it is called LIFE...but I still do not like it!
Why does anyone choose captivity? Well, captives do get fed. On a regular basis. They’re safe in their cages, their cells, their prisons. In the movie The Shawshank Redemption, longtime prisoner and now ringleader Red has been incarcerated for decades. He confesses, “These walls are funny. First you hate ’em, then you get used to ’em. Enough time passes, you get so you depend on them.”
Prisons can be safe and comfortable. They can become a known life, a familiar way. Resignation is safe; dreaming is dangerous. Letting someone else control your life is easier than rising up to deny them that control; the relationship will never be the same. Living under shame can feel far easier than fighting for your own dignity. The known is always more comfortable and less risky than the unknown. After a while, those animals in the zoo forget they were even made for the open skies, the wild savannahs. This is a horrible place to come to. Not a one of us was created to live in captivity.
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
God has done everything, won everything, and given us everything we need to live in freedom. We are meant to walk in it, more and more. We won’t walk gracefully into it all the time. But by the grace of God, and with his help, we can stumble into it. One thought at a time. One day at a time.
Most of us are probably still laboring under the impression that freedom comes first in our circumstances, and then we can experience love, joy, peace, patience, and all the other wonderful fruit of the Spirit. Not so. God usually begins first with the transformation of our attitudes; then he can change our circumstances.
Could it be any clearer? Our old way of life was nailed to the Cross with Christ, a decisive end to that sin-miserable life— no longer at sin’s every beck and call! … From now on, think of it this way: Sin speaks a dead language that means nothing to you; God speaks your mother tongue, and you hang on every word. You are dead to sin and alive to God. That’s what Jesus did.… A new power is in operation. The Spirit of life in Christ, like a strong wind, has magnificently cleared the air, freeing you from a fated lifetime of brutal tyranny at the hands of sin and death. Rom. 6: 6, 11; 8: 2 MSG
I am not saying that finding freedom is easy. It isn't. But the first part of being free is realizing that between you and others; including your relationship with Chris is a steel bar. The separation is what you need to realize. You might have been done wrong but your offenders are out free and you find yourself in a self-made prison. It is time to break out of that thing! We were not made for captivity...just like every animal in the zoo...they are never content because they were made to fly and run just like you. They may suffer through but deep down they know that they were made for greater.
You were created for so much more than you even know; so whatever you need to do to start the process of freedom; it needs to start today. You are more than a conqueror in Christ Jesus so put it all out there to Him and trust me...if you do that...He will make a way where there seems no way.
Adjust That Crown
Jonna
