Have you ever felt like you were set free from something, but still not able to get up on your feet and walk on? Have you found yourself knowing the truth about a daunting situation, but still not able to operate with any degree of victory because you just can't seem to move on?
I think that's where a lot of people, even Christians, live - in a place where they're caught between the despair of immobilization and the exhilaration of victory.
The Bible says,
You will know the truth,
and the truth will set you free.
John 8:32
I've known for years that the Word of God indeed is truth and that it has the power to set us free from all sorts of things
- wrong thinking
- unforgiveness
- sin
- bitterness
- selfishness
- cults
- repetitive issues in our lives
- etc.
And in fact the Word of God, the truth, has set me free on many occasion. But, there have been times when the truth has set me free only for me to fall down again, ending up right where I started. It's almost as though the chains that bound me (wrong thinking, habitual sins, worldly ideas, unforgiveness, you name it) kept me shackled so long that while I sat imprisoned on the floor of that dank and dark dungeon my muscles atrophied and weakened. So when the chains were removed by the truth of God's Word, I still couldn't get up and move on out into a victorious place.
Yesterday I started listening to a CD series by June Hunt of Hope for the Heart ministries called "Hope: the Anchor of the Soul." June is one wise lady and I have been amazed at how much I've learned from the few CDs I've listened to in the past two days.
But here's the bottom line that I wanted to share with you. June suggests that while the truth may set us free (and she wholeheartedly believes it does) some of us can't move into victory because we have no hope. We believe the truth, but we can't apply it to our lives, we can't walk in it, we can't see how it's going to work for us. Why not? Because somewhere along the way we lost hope. We began to believe that our situation was somehow hopeless.
But that's just not true. We are not without hope who have a saving relationship with Jesus Christ. He is the anchor of our hope. In Christ, we have hope. Apart from Him we have positive thinking, well wishes, and luck. But with Him, we have hope.
The truth sets you free, but hope sets you on your feet.
Hold onto hope, sweet friend. Hold onto Jesus, the anchor of your hope.Labels: Christian walk, hope