We sang Amazing Grace in church this morning. That song always touches me, especially the newer version that incorporates "my chains are gone." I couldn't help but be moved to tears as I sang...
My chains are gone, I've been set free
My God, my Savior has ransomed me
And like a flood His mercy reigns
Unending love, amazing grace
I'll be honest, this girl who was raised in a conservative, Baptist church wanted to hold her hands high and yell down from the balcony, "MY CHAINS ARE GONE!" I might have done just that if the tears hadn't choked me up. Instead, I just sang with all the love in my heart to my amazing Savior as I considered the prison cell he has brought me from.
No, I don't mean a literal prison cell (but almost...), I mean a prison of my own making. The prison of my sin and shame. It saddens me to admit that through the years, I've been enslaved to many different sins and struggles. My prison bars were made up of pride and fear, people-pleasing and alcohol, selfishness and doubt...and the list goes on.
This morning, as I sang, I was particularly grateful for the loosened shackle of people-pleasing. I've spent most of my life doing my best to impress others in hopes that they would think highly of me.
Did you catch that last part?
...that they would think highly of ME.
I spent most of my life more concerned about what people thought of me than what they thought of my Heavenly Father. Getting others' approval was a chain that held me captive and even caused me to hide my faith in certain situations.
In fact, that is the part of my past that brings me the most shame.
Like Peter, I hid the truth about my relationship with Christ to save my own skin. Not that claiming Him would have resulted in losing my life but at that time disapproval was a fate worse than death, in my opinion.
By God's grace and His grace only, I can honestly say that now I am MORE concerned with what others think of my Father than of me. He has set me free from worrying about the opinions of others and whether or not I measure up. My focus is to properly represent HIM and point to HIM...and if the world disapproves of me in the process, let them. I'm no longer their slave.
My chains are gone, I've been set free
My God, my Savior has ransomed me
And like a flood His mercy reigns
Unending love, amazing grace
I'll be honest, this girl who was raised in a conservative, Baptist church wanted to hold her hands high and yell down from the balcony, "MY CHAINS ARE GONE!" I might have done just that if the tears hadn't choked me up. Instead, I just sang with all the love in my heart to my amazing Savior as I considered the prison cell he has brought me from.
No, I don't mean a literal prison cell (but almost...), I mean a prison of my own making. The prison of my sin and shame. It saddens me to admit that through the years, I've been enslaved to many different sins and struggles. My prison bars were made up of pride and fear, people-pleasing and alcohol, selfishness and doubt...and the list goes on.
This morning, as I sang, I was particularly grateful for the loosened shackle of people-pleasing. I've spent most of my life doing my best to impress others in hopes that they would think highly of me.
Did you catch that last part?
...that they would think highly of ME.
I spent most of my life more concerned about what people thought of me than what they thought of my Heavenly Father. Getting others' approval was a chain that held me captive and even caused me to hide my faith in certain situations.
In fact, that is the part of my past that brings me the most shame.
Like Peter, I hid the truth about my relationship with Christ to save my own skin. Not that claiming Him would have resulted in losing my life but at that time disapproval was a fate worse than death, in my opinion.
By God's grace and His grace only, I can honestly say that now I am MORE concerned with what others think of my Father than of me. He has set me free from worrying about the opinions of others and whether or not I measure up. My focus is to properly represent HIM and point to HIM...and if the world disapproves of me in the process, let them. I'm no longer their slave.
Romans 6:16-18 - Don’t
you know that when you offer yourselves to someone to obey him as slaves, you
are slaves to the one whom you obey —whether you are slaves to sin, which leads
to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness? But thanks be to God that, though you used to
be slaves to sin, you wholeheartedly obeyed the form of teaching to which you
were entrusted. You have been set free
from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.
Praise God, my chains are GONE!!!
1 comments:
Great job Amy! Go ahead and raise those hands!! They will get over the shock (eventually) :-)
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