BONDAGE

Greetings to all in the matchless name of our Lord and savior, Jesus Christ!

Last week, I had a great time with my cousin. She is just 8 years old. While I was teasing her as schools are reopening, I could sense her feelings were getting too strong and she was getting sad. I asked her why don’t you like your school? With a childlike innocence, she replied, “I know I will get accustomed within days but the freedom of a vacation, the joy it brings; I’m going to miss it all!”

 Dear friends, isn’t our life similar to this. During vacation when we attend camps, conferences and Bible classes our heart is full of divine joy but the moment we get into our secular life, we lose it all. Somehow the beautiful fellowship with Christ is limited within the area of Church and conferences and we fail to apply it in our personal lives.

 Are we going to enter this new academic year along with the bondages of the past or are we ready to let it go?

BONDAGE:

DICTIONARY MEANING:  ‘A State of being bound usually by compulsion.’

BIBLE:  ‘It is a spirit that makes people to be subject to fear-ROMANS 8:15.’

We are under various bondages which never leave us or to frame it correctly we are under various bondages about which we are unhappy yet unwilling to let it go. Seems strange!

But then it’s true!

Dear Friends, whatever be your bondage, just remember our Lord said in Romans 8:15, “For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of ADOPTION, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.”

Wow! The Lord who created the entire universe is not our master but our FATHER!

The Lord who created the entire universe doesn’t call us as slaves but as a CHILD!

This is a very powerful verse and do not neglect the power within the verse. While we previously rebelled against Him, He has now adopted us (8:15); we can therefore address Him as “ABBA, Father”. 

Think about this for a moment: the Sovereign God has brought us into a familial relationship with Him that is so close and personal that we can address Him as “Father.” This should add a new and deeper meaning to your privilege of saying, “Our Father,” in the Lord’s Prayer! Whatever is your bondage, it might be addictions like alcohol, pornography, drugs or any other bad habits but then there is an antidote for everything.

With series of topics on bondages, I am willing to share with you some of real life encounters with the creator.

But then are you ready to let go of your bondages? What I love about the Christian life is that we have HOPE, no matter what our present situation is!

Till we meet next time, just take time and converse with the Lord about your bondages. 

It does not matter what we suffer, it does not matter how terrible our circumstances may be: God will always be with us, and will always love us. Look at the things Christians can endure, secure in the knowledge that they cannot separate us from the love of Christ: tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, peril and sword (Romans 8:35).

In fact, St. Paul even expands this thought in Romans 8:39: "...Nothing can separate us from the LOVE of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord”

I firmly believe, “THERE IS FREEDOM IN CHRIST”