Carrying my Chains

There are so many chains that hold us back and bind us up.  Everyone's chains are different at different times of their lives, in an effort to keep them from being truly free and unhindered by what surrounds them.  Here are some of the chains that bind me at times, maybe you have also carried their weight.

Anxiety

FEAR

Rebellion

CONFUSION

Melancholy

The chains are constricting, life sucking.  They hold you back from leaping into life and love.  They make you nervous and unsure of yourself and who you really are.  They are not godly and if you truly want to live life the way God intended; they have to go.  Identifying the chains is easy it's what comes next that is so hard....

When you know Jesus, you simply ask him to break the chains that bind you.  He literally sets us free by breaking the chains that bind us, loosening the hold they have over our lives.  Just getting to that point can be hard, because if you ask for help you are weak right?  Need a crutch to get through life?  I have learned to get over that.  I ask for help easily, because I know that trying to break those chains in my own strength will only get me more tangled and bound.

However...

Even after we are set free from our chains we can still choose to carry them around.  You heard me. What's binding us is broken and we have a choice to be free, but we choose to carry around the chain.  It drags heavy and weighs us down but we hold onto it because in an odd and disconcerting way, it has become comfortable and famliar to us to be fearful, to rebel, to be confused, to be a bit down.  So instead of casting that chain off completely and diving back into life, we hang back with what we know, giving that chain another opportunity to draw tight once again. 

I know.

I've been there.

I'm still doing it,

but that doesn't make it right.

You see Jesus makes a way, but we still have the choice to live in bondage, or in the fullness of life.

So today I have asked God to break the chains once again and I am casting those chains off, because they are holding me back, stopping me from doing things I love. Holding me back from reaching my goals and restricting me from loving those around me like I should.

I don't have time for chains with what we have to face in the next few months.  I am gong to need every bit or strength I have and then some. Goodbye chains, hello freedom.