Do You Hear What I Hear?

Whatever you are chained to, Jesus Christ has come to set you free.

Whatever pieces of your past you hold tight to there is a savior who paid your debt so you can let those memories be.

Whatever you are used to be defined by, the Son of God has come to speak truth to those lies, and I know this to be right because He did all that for me.

So what are you chained to?

Are you chained to who you use to be?

The things you did, the facts you hid, the things that people who look up to you don’t know about that you have no desire to admit?

Do you live in a prison of secrets?

Are you chained to what people once did to you?

The memories of what people that mistreated their power and said some terrible things to you?

Did some terrible things to you?

Did some things that would break God’s heart and put the blame back on you?

Do you live in a prison of abuse?

Are you chained to what people expect of you?

The expectations that you cannot shake, that everyday steal a piece of you?

Do you live in a prison of not feeling good enough no matter what you do?

Are you chained to religion, the list of do’s and don’ts that you’ve accepted so you can get by with just the bare minimum?

The man made ways hoping you could earn salvation?

Do you live in a prison of traditionalism, without a real revelation?

Are you chained to your own sin, feeling what you want to do, knowing what is right to do, but still you do the opposite?

Do you live in a prison of your own flesh that you feel you are stuck in?

What are you chained to?

Because I don’t know about you, but I’ve been chained to all of these things!

At one point or another all of these sins have had control over me.

I’ve been controlled by my flesh and lived a life of hypocrisy, I obeyed my desires in the name of proving that no one else was in charge of me, and I found comfort in the rituals of religion and how I could convince God that “hey at least I’m doing my duty!”

And I have been living in prisons most years I’ve been living, because I never truly got what Jesus did for me.

I did not get that He did not come to restrict me.

I did not get that He did not come with a set of rules to throw at me.

I did not get that He did not come to condemn me, but rather because of sin I was condemned already.

So Jesus came to be a friend, to give His life to set His friends free.

I did not get that Jesus coming, dying, buried and rising now changes everything!

For we have been chained to so many things, and have become use to being a slave, Jesus said “that is unnecessary, I am creating a new way. I came, died and rose to life so you can accept that you too can resurrect and have a new life in me.”

Your chains are who you were, not who you are suppose to be.

Romans 8 says “If Christ lives in us, then our bodies are dead to sin and our spirit is alive for we have been made right with God.” The same Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead is now living in us, so the same God who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to our bodies too.

He will set us free from the chains of death too

He will set us free of our past too

He will set us free from who we were, and give us a new life too.

Because if God is not enough to raise us from the dead,

if He is not enough to save us from our lives of sin,

if He is not enough to redeem us from all the places we’ve been

then He couldn’t have been enough to resurrect Christ, so we have either been made alive or Jesus is still dead.

But since He is not, since the tomb is empty we can know and rest assured death has long been conquered.

So let those chains fall to the floor, let the metal of our shackles echo loudly around the world.

We were once slaved but are bound no more, we were once dead but aren’t under sins ground anymore.

We are alive,

we are free,

we are children of the King,

and we belong to the One who has set us free.