Heart Tracks - Beloved Chains

    The Father has so many "vessels" which He may use to speak to us.  Today He spoke to me through one that He called home to Himself well over a century ago; the British preacher of the 19th century, Charles Spurgeon.

      I was reading in Spurgeon's devotional, Strengthen My Spirit, when I came upon this sentence; "We sit too often like chained eagles fastened to the rock; only that, unlike the eagle, we begin to love our chain, and would perhaps, if it came really to the test, be reluctant to have it snapped."  That's a powerful and convicting statement, for I think there are many among us, perhaps even ourselves, to whom those words may truthfully speak of.  So many of us are draped in chains that He would so gladly break, if only we would allow it.  Why will we not allow it?

     Some years ago, I received a call from a woman who was seeking a church, having just moved into the area.  Her main concern was whether or not we had an active support group that would minister to her in a particular need area of her life.  Now, I'm not against support groups, and I believe that we have a biblical role to support and encourage all believers, especially those who struggle, but that support and encouragement is meant to direct them to the freeing presence and life of Christ.  Too often, people end up seeking the comfort, encouragement and security of the group, rather than embracing the power and risen life of Christ.  This good sister was one of these.  Conversation with her revealed that she had been a part of such groups for a very long time, and I heard in her voice a desperation to find again that comfort and security she had physically moved away from.  I told her that I could not offer her the specific group she sought, but I could offer her the Christ who gives to all who come to Him in truth, freedom from the chains that so bound her.  I could hear in her voice the disappointment in our lacking the group.  Somehow, she did not hear the voice of Christ in the invite.  I prayed with her before hanging up, but knew in my heart we would not see her that week, or any other, and we never did.  She could not see that though removed from the physical presence of her support group, she could never be removed from the power, presence and life of Christ, and in Him alone was the freedom she so desperately needed.  She, like so many of us, find our security in a group, a person, a pastor, a ministry leader of some kind.  We can see them, but we cannot see Him.  And so the chains remain.
We become used to them.  Eventually, we cannot envision a life without them, no matter how miserable that life may be.  We fear the freedom we have never known, far more than the prison we have become so familiar with.

     Author and pastor Jack Taylor once said, "Stop asking God to help you.  He wants to kill you."  This sounds harsh till we understand that the "you" he refers to, the one we're asking the Father to "help," is the spirit of flesh that desires to cling to its right to self at any and all costs.  That spirit will do anything, even if it includes its own misery, to retain control and will refuse to come to Him, surrender, and live.  God is not interested in helping that "you," giving it His sympathy.  He wishes it to die, so that the "you" He created for us, to be can live, and live in the life He calls and is, abundant.
     Paul said in Galatians 4:28 that those who are His are "children of the promise."  Prisoners indeed.  His prisoners.  Prisoners of hope.  Christ calls us, you and me, to be His prisoners today, right now.  That every chain, beloved or despised, be broken in our lives, that we might come up to Him, on eagles wings, and live where He is.  Isaiah 2:3 calls us to "Come up to the mountain of the Lord."  Let us come, ever rising, ever free.
That the dungeons we have been held in, will, as Wesley wrote, "flame with light," and that our hearts be free as we rise up, and follow Him.  No longer chained to the rock of despair, but standing on the Rock of His life.
Let us come up to the mountain of the Lord.

Blessings,

Pastor O