Sometimes we feel imprisoned. Maybe your feeling comes when your children are grumbling with each other all day. Maybe you feel trapped within the confines of a particular job or job duty. Perhaps it is a choice you've made and it just seems there's no way out. Your imprisonment can be projected towards anything & many circumstances. What does the Word say, though? "Consider it pure joy my brothers when you face trials of many kinds."
The man writing my book says there were weeks he couldn't even think of a scripture because of the mental games his captors played with him and injections they gave him. His only prayer..."Jesus, I love you." He repeated this over & over again ... He knew the bible but the scriptures were so far from his tortured, distorted mind and yet he KNEW in his heart that Jesus was Lord of his life.
A few days after he realized this, Luke 10:23 came to his mind: "Blessed are the eyes that see what you see.." You can apply that to so many situations but he related it to the disciples coming back from an oppressed country where everyone was tortured & there was sickness, hunger, etc...Nothing there was "beautiful." Jesus tells them this to remind them that this is not our home! They knew oppression but also knew boundless freedom. They each witnessed the stark contrast between being fed & being hungry ... LITERALLY! They saw the pain & misery, but they had seen the Savior. He showed them unending, freeing, always full~never hungry, pure LOVE! He goes on to say more regarding this but I love this point he makes as a kind of summing up point: "It was through their torturing that we learned to love."
(((((UMMMMMMM, C O N V I C T E D !!!!!!)))))
If you already know the Savior ... You can rest certain that you've been prepared & already seen what you need to see ... Keep your eyes open & fixed on Him, your heart ready, & remember that through each of these "prisons," God is showing you many things ... Continually teaching you to love above all else, even when someone or something "wrongs" you helps remind you to see with your heart ~ through His heart. 1 Peter 4:8 says, "Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins" and John 13:34 says, "A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another." He gives no disclaimer that if your enemy or friend has hurt you, you can skip this command and love them when they're nice to you again or finally ask for forgiveness. He tells us that He has called us not only to love one another, but to do so in order to show His Father's heart & spread His Father's message. Period.
Share your heart today & love someone with reckless abandonment ~ let them see His heart ~ John 15:13 says, "Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends."
Loving Him ~ AND YOU!
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