The Gift of Freedom
Psalm 146:7b “The LORD sets prisoners free….”
[Right from the beginning of our lives we are all imprisoned by sin in the web of Satan, where everyone is ensnared in his sticky strands of lies, fear and violence. Just being born into a broken and twisted world results in quirks and knots in our personalities that bring problems, difficulties and oppression.
Then our upbringing and family culture with fallen parents instill further dysfunctional thoughts, feelings and desires into us. And then our culture’s worldview, with its unhealthy internalized values of materialism, selfishness and pride lock us into destructive feelings, desires and goals.
All these lead us to emotional pitfalls, to accepting false answers to the great human thirst for love and approval, for significance and security, for fulfillment and belonging.
These wrong answers then produce fear: fear of man, fear of the future, fear of failure, fear of pain, loss and hurt. Satan uses all of these to oppress, control, and in the end, he wants to crush us like the car in the picture below, killing all he can.
But You, Lord Jesus, have made a way out of this prison of oppression, opening the door to the cell of hopelessness. You have called us to step out of the darkness of fear into the light of your Love, into the rich and warm relationship with you .
There our fears can be washed away in the river of your forgiveness and goodness, your grace and glory. You don’t want to crush us, but to transform us and make us like new, like the second car below.
