Set free...

by Elizabeth Stewart

Life had given her good reason to live a life of bondage and brokenness. There was nothing safe and nurturing about her upbringing. Stats would tell you that it really shouldn't have been a surprise that she ended up addicted and on the streets. What was a surprise was the intervention of God's grace in her life.  She encountered Jesus Christ and His love in a very real and profound way.  She got involved in a church with a strong recovery program.  It wasn't an instantaneous transformation without struggle, but it was real and true and witnessed by all who knew and loved her. With God's help, she escaped the snare of the enemy.

I don't know what it is to live in a life altering snare like addiction.  But, I do know what it's like to feel trapped in depression, unforgiveness, worry, fear and other such unseen snares of the soul.  I've never experienced an instantaneous transformation in any of those areas, but I have experienced freedom. As with my loved one who had a more outwardly visible addiction, I've stumbled more than once on the path to freedom, but with God's help she didn't and, likewise, I didn't give up.  Then came  a day when my soul took flight and I knew that, by God's grace, that particular snare was broken.

It's all too easy for us to compare the traps we find ourselves in with someone else's struggle. We can even convince ourselves that we are free because our struggle isn't one that is outwardly obvious to all. But whether your snare is drugs or alcohol or bitterness or fear, it's still bondage. God wants us to live in freedom.  He gave His Son to purchase that freedom on our behalf.  He sent His Holy Spirit to indwell our innermost being and personality so that the inner transformation necessary for us to walk in that freedom is possible. God wants us to soar in the freedom that He has provided.  Our help to do so is in Him. The decision to accept that help is ours.

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