Chains of Self Bondage

He has walled me in, and I cannot escape. He has bound me in heavy chains. And though I cry and shout, he has shut out my prayers. He has blocked my way with a high stone wall; he has made my road crooked. Lamentations 3: 7-9

   Chains, walls, bondage….. I have been to a variety of nations thus far, and have begun to see certain patterns of self-bondage…..it’s universal. Struggles and weaknesses have taken control of lives, and people have dug themselves into a deep dark hole. They are held hostage by darkness and slowly giving up. There is no longer any peace or any faith; only desperation and helplessness remains. How do you pull yourself out of something like that? How do you regain strength?

   In Western society a lot of our chains are self made. Addictions, obsessions, fears, and bad choices have slowly taken control. They lead to an unhealthy cycle, a pattern of self abuse. People become vulnerable and the devil seizes the day…..he seeps his horrid self into them. With the vulnerability comes the self pity, another big one……the “poor me syndrome.” People are down on their luck, overwhelmed with life’s challenges; and it becomes easy to fall down, to feel sorry for themselves. There appears to be so few options or much hope for a change.

   Many, in other cultures, are bound by society made chains or generational bondage. Things like poverty, obligations, and disease have chained people to a spiritual darkness. They are defeated. I have prayed for various people for strength of faith, to get past the darkness, to find hope. Prayer is good, but the fact of the matter is people have to discover life again……rediscover living faith…..regain their savior.

   Our contact this month, Bishop Moses, gave a great sermon of Dead and Alive Faith last Sunday. This brought to light times from my own past; and also the plight of people I know today. Living faith has a variety of different charachteristics: sensitive to the needs of others, willing to take risks for God, strength during trials and tribulations, bares fruit, etc. Basically faith without love, joy, and good acts for others is useless. Dead faith is just that…..dead. If you carry something dead with you long enough, it begins to stink and get heavy. Many people are at that point in their lives, they stink and feel very heavy. They are too preoccupied with their own misery, to really have the capacity to help others. It’s not necessarily that they don’t want help…..they just don’t know how. What does it take to make faith alive again…..how do you climb out of the dark pit??

How do people move past rejection, the hunger pains of starvation, the loss of their family, strong addictions, loneliness, and everything else that takes your joy away. It’s hard for me to see people here in Africa who have close to nothing, who don’t know how their kids are going to eat, who are dying from AIDs or have lost all their children to the disease……it’s hard to tell them to have Faith. I think back to the times when I was in a dark hole…..when I held myself hostage from experiencing God’s joy……what did I do. Granted, some suffering seems worse then others; but the truth is they are unique to each person. It’s really not a competition. All I know is I was defeated for quite some time…..and then in a moment of absolute weakness, I chose to fight.

I moved past myself and remembered that this life is not for me…..I am not living for my own glory. The pain now is nothing to the freedom and joy in eternity. I believe I was given the strength of perseverance and faith; but they are useless if I don’t use them for the glory of my savior. If I do believe that Christ died for me, then I have the responsibility to live for Him. So, all I can do is remind people of this, remind them that their Savior has not forgotten them, they don’t suffer in vain. He is telling them not to fear.

How did I get out? I reached up, desperately and confidently for my Father’s hand…….a mighty hand that was always reaching, into my darkness, for me. I grabbed it and chose to trust and obey Him.

Now, all I can do for the people I meet is bring that encouragement and that light. No one suffers in vain if they are truely living their life for Christ. If they are doing good…..