A SELF-IMPOSED PRISON
In England, police questioned a man about the assault of an 86-year-old woman. The next day he disappeared. Law enforcement never gave up their search for him, periodically popping into his home. Eight years later, they caught him. Incredibly, he'd been hiding in a six-by-two-foot hole under the floorboards of his living room. He concealed himself so well, that even his children didn't know he was there. For the first two years of his self-imposed imprisonment he never saw the light of day. Then he began coming out occasionally, and that’s when the cops nabbed him.
Imagine enduring eight years in such a miserable existence! Crammed in a dank, dark hole; unable to hug your children or feel the sun on your face. How much easier would life have been to simply surrender in the beginning and “do your time?”
That got me thinking. How many of us live in prisons of our own making? Pursuing a path of self-indulgence, selfish-ambition or self-pity, we “dig holes” for ourselves, existing in bondage to sin, imprisoned by our own choices. That’s NOT how God designed us to live! In contrast, I think of a young man I visited in jail who was facing life in prison. He shared, "In jail, I found a freedom I've never known. I'm actually more free now— in jail— than I was on the outside...because now I have Jesus."
In John 8:32, Jesus proclaimed, "You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free." In verse 36 he adds, "If the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed." We meet people every day who are in prison. I don't mean they're behind bars at the "County Hotel.” But their prison is just as real. We can be “locked up” in a mansion on a hill or in a posh corner office of a high-rise. It's a very comfortable prison, to be sure, but a prison nonetheless. The weird thing is, the cell's not even locked! Jesus has already set us free. We just need to open the door and accept the freedom he's given us, and walk out into a wonderful new life!
What lies are you believing in your life that continue to hold you in bondage?
How can you release these to Jesus and allow him to set you free?
"Lord Jesus, help me to embrace your truth and experience the freedom you promise."