The Door is Open and the Chains Are Gone!

Are you still sitting in that dark lonely pit of a dungeon, even though the door to your cell is opened and your chains are gone? Sunday the pastor at our church preached about deliverance and the idea that when something is delivered, it is removed or handed over from one grip to another. This idea has been rolling around my head for days now.

We've all been there, in the grips of that dungeon, sitting in a dark pit.  It looks different to each individual and sometimes it can change. We get fooled into thinking we're the only ones there, nobody else sees us, or even knows we're there. But Jesus not only knows, He has delivered us from that pit, the chains of our old life and actions have been removed. We've been set free! For some the pit that consumes them may be addictions, guilt, insecurities, depression, fear, and anxieties. The chains that hold them there are the labels placed on them by other people and lies spoken over them by the enemy. 

Acts 12:7-10 and Acts 16:16-38 is about Peter and then Paul and Silas's  delivery  from their prison and the chains that held them there. False accusations, which is what holds every believer who sits in the prison of depression, guilt, anxiety, shame, or any other spiritual sometimes emotional or mental ailment; it's what brought these godly men of Acts to their prison. Like Peter, Paul, and Silas, God delivered them straight out of the chains that held them there, we are also delivered from the chains that hold us down. 

While we may have been delivered we must take part in the getting out. God caused a great earthquake that loosened the chains of Paul and Silas, who were stripped and beaten, and thrown in prison with out a trial. They stayed faithful and waited on the Lord and took action at the appropriate time. In Peter's case an angel quietly came to his cell, released him from his chains, told him to get up, get dressed, and walk out. In both cases God could have just transported them from one place to another like Scotty beaming Kirk and Spock up to the Enterprise. God could have deceived the guards like Obi-wan Kneobi's Jedi mind tricks. But He didn't. Their deliverance was witnessed by others. 

We've been given the gift of freedom, but we have to accept it and use it. Stand up, walk out, and let it be a witness to others. Get out of that pit. The door to your cell is open and the chains are gone. Don't just sit there and use your past captivity as an excuse to not live out your future. There are times the devil deceives us into thinking we're still trapped and we can't do this or that, but give into it. It's hard when you have to start living out life the way God intended, it's can be full of new and never before seen experiences. God has a new and better plan for us than what we've lived while in the dungeons of life. And as many have read in my first blog post, I spent a long time in those dungeons.

For me, there was that guilt over sin already forgiven, anxiety, unfounded fears and depression. There were the labels of abused, used up, dysfunction, and disorder. There were the lies spoken about me that said I was not good enough, smart enough, or worthy.  I was crazy, unloveable, and ugly. If I allow myself I can sink back into the despair  of a that pit, that dungeon where nobody could see me or hear my cries. You see, I can allow myself return or I can walk out and live in freedom. Sometimes returning to the pit is easier, it's comfortable, familiar, and at one time all I knew. I knew how to live that way and knew what to expect. 

At times I still struggle with social anxiety, feelings if not being good enough, and the shadow of depression tries to stretch over me, but if I stand firm in the Lord, stay in HIS word, and out if the old cell deep in the dungeons of my past, I know I can stay free and victorious. I admit that sometimes it is easy for me to return and hide out there in order to keep from doing something I may be called to do, using the excuse of depression and anxiety, or listening to lies about being unworthy. In fact if I'm truthful, living as a broken down, depressed person, with social anxiety keeps me from doing the things I find difficult. I can use that pit to hide from new responsibilities. But is that what God wants for me? NO!

I've been delivered from the grip of Satan himself to the gentle but firm grip of the Lord God Almighty who has a hope and a future planned out for me! It is my responsibility to get out of my cell and walk in it! Are you content sitting in your cell, in the deep dark dungeons of life, bound up in chains, where nobody can see you, and you can pretend that you won't be held responsible for not taking more action in your life, or are you ready to step out and see what hope and future lies before you? Step out, life in Christ can be the greatest adventure!