By, Tamah Bryant
I found myself drawn to Psalm 107 for a season. Every time I opened up the Bible I would meander my way over to the same chapter. The Lord just kept telling me He needed me to dwell on that for another day, so I did. The chapter is broken up into five scenarios of different people finding themselves in "situations" and being delivered after they cried out to the Lord The overwhelming theme is the goodness of God and His wonderful works.
In one scene, we find somebody who is bound in chains because of his sin. His soul is hungry and thirsty, and God satisfies and fills him. He had been proud and rebellious and had been brought down low with hard labor, but then he cried to the Lord in his trouble, and the Lord heard him and broke his chains. Don't miss that...He BROKE his chains, He did not just lose them and set him free, but He broke them and set him free. When something is broken, it is powerless to be used against you anymore.
So many times, however, I take those broken chains and try to wrap them around me so that I am still enslaved, putting my focus on the work Satan is doing and not Christ. I get overwhelmed and feel defeated. I forget that, through Christ, I have the victory and I can trust that He will accomplish His will through me. So I take those broken chains and start wrapping myself up, causing myself to be less effective, bound by my own doing. Feeling even more miserable and trying to hold captive what Christ has set free!
But I AM free! Free from the chains that Satan enslaved me with. Even free from the expectations other people may have of me. Those chains have been replaced by a robe of righteousness and if God is for me...who can stand against me? Does it really even matter?
I rejoice today for the freedom I have in Christ. He has broken my chains so I can freely love, worship, glorify and praise the One Who fights for me.