Chain Breaking Choices
Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God. I Peter 2:16 ESV
When I look at my biggest issues what I discover is that most of the time I am my biggest issue.
Don’t give up on freedom!
Jesus was always healing, helping and liberating the too far gone crowd and He still is!
When we give up on freedom we often shift our energy to defending, justifying or even glorifying our chains.
Morgan Freeman (Red)- Shawshank Redemption: These walls are kind of funny. First you hate 'em, then you get used to 'em. Enough time passes, gets so you depend on them. That’s institutionalized. They send you here for life, that's exactly what they take. The part that counts, anyways.
One man was there who had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had already been there a long time, he said to him, “Do you want to be healed?” The sick man answered him, “Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, and while I am going another steps down before me.” Jesus said to him, “Get up, take up your bed, and walk.” And at once the man was healed, and he took up his bed and walked. John 5:5-9 ESV
God has always been about liberty.
Then Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him, “If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples; and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.” John 8:21-32 NRSV
Bondage doesn’t stand a chance against the Jesus!
Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. 2 Corinthians 3:17
One of the first and most obvious chain breakers we can choose is Praise.
Along about midnight, Paul and Silas were at prayer and singing a robust hymn to God. The other prisoners couldn't believe their ears. Then, without warning, a huge earthquake! The jailhouse tottered, every door flew open, all the prisoners were loose. Acts 16:25-26 MSG
Praise is the place where our need and God’s provision collide in an incredible release of breakthrough.