A Captive Set Free

For now I will break his yoke from off thee, and will burst thy bonds in sunder. Nahum 1:13

Ever feel like your life is under someone else's control, manipulation, or influence? Ever feel like some habit has you in its grip? Nothing leaves us more defeated then when we are held captive by strongholds. It can be a person, a habit, a generational bent, a thought pattern, or strong desires that rear their ugly heads.

We hear a lot today about addictions. Something that has a grip on your life of which you are not free. I use to buy into the lie that certain things would always have me in bondage. But today, Scripture reminds me that God is still in the business of setting captives free. It is not His desire that I stay bound. As I raise the shackles of my life to Him, He not only possesses the key to unlock them, He takes them away and destroys them. Their presence and effect on me need no longer hold sway.

Every day can be an emancipation proclamation from those things, attitudes, and people who have me enslaved....or rather that I have voluntarily put myself under their control. May I be honest enough with myself and God to admit my bondage and addictions. May I be willing to confess any known sin that feeds the stronghold. And may I allow God to do His work of freedom and restoration in me. The truth does set me free indeed!

God, You alone can help me live in freedom. I come to You. Amen.

My True Source

Your shepherds are sleeping, O king of Assyria;Your nobles are lying down.Your people are scattered on the mountains and there is no one to regather them. Nahum 3:18 (New American Standard Bible)

I read a verse like this and I am filled with such security that it does not describe my heavenly Father. Ever have someone you were counting on who could not or would not come through for you? How tragic when that happens to be a parent, spouse, or best friend.

But the truth of the matter is people are human and they will fail. Yet my heavenly Father is eternal and cannot fail. He is a strong hold in the day of trouble, He gathers us in His arms like a shepherd, He does not slumber or sleep, He never leaves me or forsakes me, I am held secure in His hands.

For years I longed for a human source to be all of that for me. And when they were not able to be that for me I was left with feelings of loneliness, despair, and frustration. There are still times I see myself repeating the pattern.

But now I am leaning how much God wants me to seek Him to meet those needs of my heart. He shelters, sustains, comforts, and strengthens me in so many ways.

Any time I look to people I must realize at best they are a mere shadow of the real thing. God uses people in my life ~ most definitely! But He continues to remind me He is the source of living water and they are the faucets.

Father, may I continually go to You and find You more than enough! Amen.

God's Heart

The LORD is good, a strong hold in the day of trouble; and He knoweth them that trust in Him. Nahum 1:7

I do not like confrontation and I certainly do not want to be the recipient of someone else's wrath. Micah 1:1-6 gives a vivid picture of God's anger toward His enemies. It is not a pretty picture but so necessary to get a full view of God's heart. It uses words like angry, jealous, revenge, vengeance, and wrath. In His presence, mountains quake, hills melt, and the earth burns. Jonathan Edwards captured an accurate picture of this aspect of God in his sermon "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God."

If this were the only picture of God in Scripture, we would live hopeless and helpless. Meeting with God daily would look more like the scene from the "Wizard of Oz" when Dorothy and her friends first went before the wizard. Our souls would shake and our hearts would melt.
But as God's child, I revel in today's verse that speaks of God's goodness, protection, and knowledge. What assurance is mine as I am reminded that God is good and He is my place of security in the storms of my life! And yet the personal touch to all of this is that "He knows the ones who trust in Him."

I have some incredible people in my life. Some I never thought I would get to know on a personal level. As we have shared the stories of our life with each other the friendship has developed into a precious bond. To think that at one time they did not even know I existed but now we know each other intimately. Our "I love you" statements are not general statements any more. They are proclamations from our hearts.

To think that the God of the universe knows me better than anyone else and desires that I know Him as well is astounding. He is aware of my strengths and weaknesses, my thoughts as well as my actions, my sterling moments as well as my depravity.

I tend to realize a friend's love for me, not during my shining moments so much as by the moments when I have blown it. Security comes when seeing my bad side does not cause them to back away from me and reject me.

Father, You loved me even before You began to change me. That is a comforting thought. I don't think I will ever get use to it. You astound me with Your radical love. I rest in that today! Amen.