Many people live in prisons.  They are not prison houses of stone and mortar nor are there bars, but prisons nonetheless.  They may be limitations imposed by others, but, more frequently, such prisons are self-constructed over time.  The prison of belief is always solitary confinement because no one else can really see or understand. Quiet desperation is the demeanor of the oppressed.  So lonely and sad are these that they may despair of life but are afraid to admit even that. We should carefully watch for signs in others because we have all been paroled from the prison house of despair and are apt to return someday.

We become what we believe we are, and ingrained patterns of behavior are not easily changed.  We embrace the familiar, and it becomes the only life we know. It’s hard to lay down a way of living even if it is for the best.  So, we wear chains from which we desire to be freed and are afraid to lose. A segment from a loved poem states it well: “These prison walls to me had grown an hermitage, and all mine own.  My very chains and I grew friends, so much a long communion tends to make us what we are, even I, regained my freedom with a sigh.” Love and hate are neighbors in the quest for freedom.

“We have met the enemy, and he is us,” opined the comic icon Pogo.  It is beyond doubt that our penchant for self-confinement plays into the hands of our great enemy.  With so many things outside our control, we cannot afford to cede to him the things within grasp. We will never accomplish God’s plan for our lives if we impose limitations on ourselves.  Satan is ever our adversary, and he doesn’t mind hitting below the belt. The sincere are painfully aware of their weaknesses and may be especially susceptible to attacks in this regard. In the spiritual battle, every fighter has tasted the canvas, but don’t stay down too long.

Perhaps, you are your own greatest obstacle.  Your past enslaves and imprisons you, hindering present and future progress.  I do not believe this is God’s will. As pride may be a ditch on one side of the road, self-disrespect is on the other.  Scripture tells us all have sinned and fall short of the standard that brings glory to God. It’s not just you. In spite of this, God’s plan is to redeem, not condemn, us.  Such redemption frees us from the past and for the future. The changed life salvation brings empowers us to break patterns of behavior through the power of God within us. There is no redemption without results.

God wants you to be free.  Liberated believers are optimal in His service and optimistic in life.  Those whom God has chosen are free from the judgments of Satan, society and self.  They are confident navigators on the ocean of time. God does not mean for you and I to be limited by sinfulness, self-judgment or sorrow.

When God has forgiven you- forgive yourself.  Do not return to the prison opened by His grace.  And as you allow freedom to yourself, allow freedom to others.  I am grateful to every friend who forgave my faults and lessened my fears.  It is an honor for me to give hope to them.

Sterl