Leaving Captivity Behind

Imagine you visit a prison. As you walk down the row of prison cells you notice something interesting. There is one cell that unlocked and open, but there is still a person inside. You ask about this person and find out they were set free last month, but they refuse to leave the cell. Even when told repeatedly that they are free, they only respond by explaining how their situation is unique, how they are unable to walk forward, how their past holds them in the prison cell, and how they are afraid of what is on the other side of the cell.

If we were to encounter this person, we would question their sanity. We would wonder how can they continue to stay in prison when they have the opportunity to leave? How could they choose captivity above freedom?

Over the last year, God has begun to show me that I am this person. Often I choose to stay in captivity when I am already free. And just like we’d have to question this person who remains in their prison cell, I have to question myself. Why do I choose captivity over freedom? Why do I stay in this place or pattern God has set me free from?

Listen to the words God speaks to us in Galatians 5:1, “It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery.”

If you are God’s child, you are free. You are free. Do you believe that? Do you see that? Can you live that?

Freedom should mark the life of God’s children, but too often instead of freedom our lives are marked by fear, insecurity, bondage, instability, and sin.

So what do we do, when we find ourselves still sitting in the prison cell? How do we walk forward? We have to begin living our lives based on truth. Truth has to be our filter, not our past or our feelings or our fears.

Jesus said it this way, “If you continue in My word; then you are truly disciples of Mine; and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.” (John 8:32) Here the word for know means to have a knowledge of or to know intimately. Truth is not a concept, it is a lifestyle we practice and a relationship we develop.

In his book, The Strategy of Satan Warren Wiersbe says, “Satan enjoys seeing Christians get a head knowledge of victory without a heart experience, because this lulls believers into a false security, and Satan finds them an easy prey. It is not the reading of truth, or even the enjoying of truth that brings the blessing. It is the doing of truth.”

While we don’t have to earn our freedom, we do have to live our freedom. The enemy is telling us the lies that keep us in our prison cell. But God offers us the truth. And truth, truth that we live by, leads us to full freedom.

What areas have you allowed the enemy’s lies to keep you captive? What truth do you need to know and live out today? It is time to live and walk free.  It is time to leave captivity behind.

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So Jesus was saying to those Jews who had believed Him, “If you continue in My word; then you are truly disciples of Mine; and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.”
John 8:31-32 NASB

Therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise also partook of the same, that through death He might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil.
Hebrews 2:14 NASB

It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery.
Galatians 5:1 NASB