We Are Not Bound By Chains

"Rise from the dust, O Jerusalem.
    Sit in a place of honor.
Remove the chains of slavery from your neck,
    O captive daughter of Zion."

Isaiah 52:2 

No person, disease, circumstance, fear, or death can chain God's word. People and governments have put martyrs to death, and put people in prison because of their faith. Their deaths and imprisonments did not bind God's word. God's word is alive, written on the hearts of man, His creation. And His word has continued. From the beginning of time until today, it is alive.

The enemy seeks to keep us in chains. He knows our weaknesses. If it's food, he seeks to keep us a slave to our food addiction. If it's the internet and media, he seeks to keep us glued to our tv and computer. If it's an abusive person, he will try to keep us in close proximity to that person and confused for as long as possible. If it's our laziness, he will keep us lazy. If it's a wrong, humanistic way of thought that doesn't line up with God's word, he will keep us chained to that. If it's popularity and recognition we seek, he will keep us chained by constantly seeking that, instead of God.  He is out to keep us from living a life of freedom in Christ. Instead he wants us to live in any possible form of bondage. Any form of bondage will keep us from living our fullest life in Christ. 

"For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places." Ephesians 6:12

What does this tell us? We are to be always on guard for our freedom in Christ. Always praying, seeking wisdom and intentionally aware of God's freedom. Praying for God to reveal ways in which we have erred and found ourselves chained. Chains aren't only physical. Chains can be on the mind and binding the heart. God will reveal those to us as we seek Him and remove those chains with the power of His word.  We need to be living in the freedom of unchained Biblical living. We have to seek out what God's pathway of life is. He tell us in Psalm 16:11: "You will show me the path way of life, granting me the joy of your presence and the pleasures of living with you forever." 

In 2 Timothy 2:9, Paul tells Timothy: "And because I preach this Good News, I am suffering and have been chained like a criminal. But the word of God cannot be chained."  Though Paul died, God's word lived on. Timothy carried on Paul's words, and then many more carried on Timothy's words. The word of God was not popular in Paul's day, and it isn't popular today. But it is freedom. It is our bread of life. "Yes, I am the bread of life!" John 6:48 

In order to stay discerning to eliminate these chains in our lives, we need to be in the word daily. It is the same as eating our food each day. This is what John was trying to tell us. The word is also our "bread of life!" The farther away we get from God's word, the more we are bound by the enemies invisible chains.

 "The wellspring of wisdom is a flowing brook." Proverbs 18:4

God's living word, the bread of life, the wellspring of life, will never be chained. It will flow throughout time. Therefore as believers, we are not to think we have to live in chains! Living in God's freedom shows us true joy, regardless of our circumstances. We don't have to choose to live in chains, in fear, because of our circumstances, or because of what has been done to us by another sinful human being. We can live in God's freedom, in Christ's freedom. Christ took our chains from us when he died on the cross. When he was "chained" with nails in his hands and feet. Your chains are already gone.  Let's live our lives in the fullness of this truth.

We are not slaves to this world. We are already set free. We are not slaves to the internet, media, our houses, our cars, or the latest and greatest of everything.  We are captives to Christ only. The life giver, wellspring of life, truth teller, mind illuminating, heart purifier, Christ.

"...so that it has become evident to the whole palace guard, and to all the rest, that my chains are in Christ;" Philippians 1:13

Let us always remember the many around the world who are in real, physical chains (prison) because of their faith.  "Remember the prisoners as if chained with them—those who are mistreated—since you yourselves are in the body also." Hebrews 13:3

Prayer: Lord, show me the chains I am bound by but that I am blind to. Remove my walls of blindness and illuminate your truth. Cast off all of my chains and show me your freedom. Help me to live with the freedom of Christ in my heart every day. Amen.

  Richard Wurmbrand is the author of "Tortured for Christ." He spent many years in communist Romania in prison. He was tortured numerous times.  But while He was in physical chains, he speaks of the freedom He still had in Christ. For those of us who are not in physical chains, it is a picture of just how much freedom we are to be living in.

"I have seen Christians in Communist prisons with fifty pounds of chains on their feet, tortured with red-hot iron pokers, in whose throats spoonfuls of salt had been forced, being kept afterward without water, starving, whipped, suffering from cold—and praying with fervor for the Com­­munists. This is humanly in­explicable! It is the love of Christ, which was poured out in our hearts." Tortured For Christ

"I have found truly joyful Christians only in the Bible, in the Underground Church, and in prison." Tortured For Christ

"Persecution has always produced a better Christian-a witnessing Christian, a soul-winning Christian. Communist persecution has backfired and produced serious, dedicated Christians such as are rarely seen in free lands. These people cannot understand how anyone can be a Christian and not want to win every soul they meet." Tortured For Christ

"In solitary confinement, we could not pray as before. We were unimaginably hungry; we had been drugged until we acted like idiots. We were as weak as skeletons. The Lord’s Prayer was much too long for us—we could not concentrate enough to say it. My only prayer repeated again and again was, 'Jesus, I love You.' And then, one glorious day I got the answer from Jesus: 'You love me? Now I will show you how I love you.' At once, I felt a flame in my heart, which burned like the coronal streamers of the sun. The disciples on the way to Emmaus said that their hearts burned when Jesus spoke with them. So it was with me. I knew the love of the One who gave His life on the cross for us all." Tortured For Christ

"If the heart is cleansed by the love of Jesus Christ, and if the heart loves Him, one can resist all tortures." Tortured For Christ

   

May God's peace and wisdom be with you as you build your own wall of God's truth.