“Before you can break out of prison, you must realize you are locked up.” – Anonymous
So often we are think that our struggles are just because of “the way we were made.” We think we’re addicted, or depressed, or full of anger because we were created that way. But as David acknowledged in Psalm 139, we were “fearfully and wonderfully made”. God even declared us—his creation— good!
As the old saying goes “God doesn’t make junk.” But, the enemy tries to make us feel like we are junk. He wants us to believe that we are inherently flawed—that we’re inferior to others. With his help, life has dealt us some blows, and since we didn’t know or trust that God could take care of the residual damage and restore us to our original state, we found other ways to deal with the pain of it all. We closed ourselves off, we got angry, we gave in to hopelessness, or became reliant on something or someone to “get us through” each day. We put ourselves in a prison of our own making. A place of torment and despair.
It’s not us that is flawed. It is how we have been trying to deal with the bumps in life that is the problem. Once we realize that our efforts have locked us out of our own best life and God has been holding the key safe for us, we can start reclaiming the “good” stuff, once again. As we learn, bit by bit, to surrender to God and let him be our protector, our defender, and our guide we can begin to let go of the anger, the hopelessness, and the addictions that have kept us isolated and alone.
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me [Jesus] to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised.” —Luke 4:17-19 KJV
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