What Holds You Captive?
What holds you back and keeps you stuck in life …unable to move forward. Is it your fear? Oppression? Your thoughts? Believing lies that you are not and maybe never will be?… You fill in the blank. What chains keep you bound? Today, ask yourself this question, “What would today be like if I had the ability to "Dance on My Chains?"
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering to the sight of the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” ~~ Luke 4:18
This above verse is so powerful for us as individuals as we enter this new decade. Jesus calls us to proclaim His truth over our lives and the lives of our family and friends. Are you willing to start? Begin, with prayer, by taking authority you have been given in His Word, and proclaiming: "This is the year of the Lord’s favor in my life!"
Are You Stuck?...
So often we get “stuck” in our lives and unable to move forward in our walk with Jesus. Have you ever experienced being stuck? I know I have! Over the past few years, I have been stuck in my own thoughts due to believing lies that caused me stay put where I was - unable to move forward into the place where God was calling me. My fears, oppression, and my “not-good-enough self“ talked me into staying stuck. But then I read the above verse, and my spirit rejoiced as I realized Jesus desires us to become unstuck. And He has given us the way to break out from being bound. Though our thought lives may have been clouded by the world and what “they” say, Jesus calls us to walk out of the prison that keeps us from fulfilling our calling.
I Longed to Break Free and Move Forward!...
I realized that those wrong thoughts kept me in a spiritual and mental prison. I desperately wanted to break out of it and be cut loose from my fears that held me captive for way too long. So, the real question became …
How Can We Become Unstuck?
In order to move into His calling and anointing, and start proclaiming the Good News, first, I needed to accept and surrender to the fact that my circumstances in life may not change. But through prayer and my believing the promises in His Word, I discovered I could change my thought processes. In Isaiah 61:3 we read that God wants: “to give them a beautiful headdress instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, and the garment of praise instead of a faint spirit; that they may be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he may be glorified.”
Imagine Jesus dressing you with a beautiful headdress instead of ashes, giving you gladness instead of mourning. This is His promise to you, precious child of the Highest! Today, will you make the choice to believe His Truth over the enemy’s lie?
Today, choose to become unstuck and dance on your chains that have kept you bound for way too long. Put on the garment of praise, and watch all oppression and all your fears fall away as you become anchored in Him.
Psalm 107 urges us to “give thanks to the Lord, for he is good for his steadfast loves endures forever!” David goes on and tells us that we are a redeemed people, and that when we cry to the Lord, He hears us and delivers us from our distress. His Word furthermore says that “He brought them out of darkness and shadow of death, and burst their bonds apart. Let them thank the Lord for his steadfast love.”
The Lord longs and waits for you to cry out to Him in your deepest despair. His love will cover you, heal you, and free you. Therefore...
Recognize That You Will Never Be Good Enough Within Yourself!...
When I realized that God accepted me for who I am - in my good days and bad days, right where I am all the time, and that He has been there for me, saved me, and desired to clothe me with His righteousness - everything changed. For we cannot earn our salvation. We cannot "pull ourselves up by our own bootstraps" as it were. We move forward as we receive God's free gift - His mercy, love, and grace!
"It's not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost" ~ Titus 3:5.
Knowing this, I become full of joy and have a new peace in my heart. Now I am unstuck and free to proclaim God's love and Good News to others. Now I am dancing on my chains that once held me back. How about you?
~ Elizabeth Bowman