Prisons of Our Own Making

For the past few weeks God has laid on my heart that most “prisons” we find ourselves in are prisons of our own making and that when we’re in those prisons, it’s impossible to serve or worship Him. Psalm 142:7 has really been on my heart (“Bring my soul out of prison, that I may praise Your name.”) and a verse from Exodus 7,8,9 and 10 when God told Moses what to say to Pharaoh (“Let My people go, that they may worship Me.”). Our prisons can be anything: anger, jealousy, distrust, pride, negativity, bitterness, hatred—the list goes on and on. And what’s scary is the fact that we open the prison door, walk in, reach through the bars to lock the door and then reach over to hang the key on the wall. We then choose to stay in the prison, rather than grab the key and unlock the door. I also noticed 3 words that He added for Moses to tell Pharaoh (in the 7^th chapter of Exodus): “in the desert.” “Let My people go, that they may worship Me in the desert.” It brought to my mind 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18: “Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” Always and continually, even while in the desert, even when in prisons of our own making. You see, when we praise God while we are in the prisons, the prison door opens and the chains fall off—just like they did for Paul and Silas (Acts 16:25-26). When our midnights roll around, may we be found praising God and breaking the chains of anger, jealousy, distrust, pride, negativity, bitterness, hatred and any other chains that bind us and keep us from being a true child of God.

Advertisement