Set Free

By Bob Colquhoun

Imagine yourself for a moment, sitting next to God and looking down at the world.  Everywhere you look people are trapped inside self-made prisons: Heartache, depression, loneliness, distrust, self-doubt, jealousy, a loss of self-worth, obesity, addictions, and an overall feeling of emptiness. Then you see those that get caught up chasing a life style of more and more, until one day they wake up and find themselves addicted to the chase and living in a self-made prison called WANT. We have created a world of, “nobody cares so why should I”, and “I’m only looking out for me “and “what I can get with the least amount of effort?” It is  a world where there seems to be a lack of strong moral values and a loss of all respect for true love and kindness and all that God has created us to be. It’s as if we live in a world/prison where people just don’t care anymore. We are so lost in trying to find happiness through “things” that when we fail, we turn to drugs and alcohol to self-medicate so we can cope with living in a prison called failure that we’ve created in our minds.

I spent 15 years of my life living in that world, a world so centered on me, it became a prison of me, me, me, and I found myself trapped in anger, rage, and self righteous emptiness. Sure I thought I was on top of the world but, like so many others, I lived a superficial life, making myself believe I was happy.  In reality, I was living in a self-made prison with no hope of finding a way to escape. I spent countless nights full of pain, tears and suffering in the emptiness of my personal prison.  I was crying inside for something or someone to rescue me and set me free. In the darkest, lowest, and angriest point of my life, when I was the worst of the worst, God miraculously came into my heart and set me free. He alone took away all the pain and suffering.  He rescued me from myself, and spared me from physical and emotional death on more than one occasion. He took away the bondage of sin and my self-made prisons and set me free.  He gave me the only gift that truly matters, His unconditional love and forgiveness.  Why? Why did he even care about me at all?

Now imagine Jesus Christ sitting next to God, His Father, looking down at the world and seeing that it was spinning out of control.  It was obvious that they needed to set a plan in motion that would save us from ourselves, and the penalty of sin. So, because God loved us so much – as much as a parent loves a child, He sent His one and only Son Jesus, into the world to give us an escape from our prisons. To accomplish this He had to live the example, to teach us that true life and freedom come from and through obedience to God.  He had to show us the powerful love that God has for us by suffering rejection, hate and ultimately, death. Through His life and death on earth and his resurrection back to life, He created a way for us all to be released from our self-made prisons.  By the surrendering of ourselves, and giving up the things that keep us away from God we can all be set free.  If we want unconditional love and complete forgiveness, all we have to do it claim our spot in the family of God and mean it!

So the next time you are reading your Bible, or sitting in Church, or just thinking about God, remember as Jesus hung on that cross, suffering and dying, He did this so that everyone could know and live in freedom, and so that we would understand and know true love in Him and through Him. Please take the time read the verses from God’s word, and listen to the songs that He has written through me. Because of His love for me, I am free, and I am truly and totally in love with Him. What are you waiting for, what do you have to lose. Surrender every bit of who you are to Jesus and be set free.

Jeremiah 29:11-13 / John 3:16 /    Romans 3:23, 5:1-8, 6:23, 10:9, 10:13 / Philippians 2:3-11

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NaISsQQFR98

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3YIP84TcCCA

May the power of God’s love, grace, and mercy be your everything.