How many of us have felt like we’ve been trapped in a “prison cell” during our lives? Maybe we’ve been in bondage to drugs, booze, sexual immorality, cussing, abuse…folks, whether we choose to believe it or not, there is a laundry list of things that the world entices us with; and too often times we fall into that age-old trap of sin.
Our own individual “cells” take on many forms; and even after we give our lives to Christ Jesus and become new creations (those who are called Christians), we can still fall back into that same pattern. We try to justify our actions with what the Galatian church was doing in the New Testament: they wanted to keep the old “laws” like circumcision as a way of reverting back to their legalistic ways before Christ came into the world. Paul reminded them very simply that no matter how much they attempted to trust the “old” ways, there was only One Way…and that was through Jesus Christ. The people in Galatia, without realizing it, were walking back into their own “cells” and slamming the door behind them!
My friends, Christ came to give us freedom, not a death sentence behind cold iron bars! He came to unlock the chains of slavery and deliver us from the bondage of sin; He came with the only key each of us needed for our own dank, cold, musty, and filthy “cells.” The enemy tries to keep us in those places, but Jesus came to give us life more abundantly. (John 10:10).
We all need to remember that we are no longer living in the past, and we need not revert to our past. We are free to walk out of our prison “cells” and experience the fullness of life that is in Christ. We no longer are held to the old standards of our past life in the world, but we are held to a new standard: to love one another!
Are you ready to walk out of your “cell” into the SONshine of a new life today?
Be blessed!!
