Jason Silver

Thursday, May 2nd, 2019

Have you ever encountered a person who is afraid to welcome religion into their life for fear of losing freedom?

I think it's pretty common. Most people think of Christianity as based on rules, and I can understand why. I see it modeled in terrible stereotypes on television, and most of us can recall a bad experience with a zealous “Christian” relative.

It looks like people have felt this way about religion for thousands of years! Take the first three verses of Psalm 2 as an example:

1 Why do the nations conspire,
and the peoples plot in vain?
2 The kings of the earth set themselves,
and the rulers take counsel together,
against the Lord and his anointed, saying,
3 ‘Let us burst their bonds asunder,
and cast their cords from us.’

These verses describe how the various people of the earth plot and plan to escape what they perceive as the restrictions that God puts upon them. They see God as a “bondage-bringer,” and this very attitude is evidence of their spiritual deficit. God is, in fact, a bondage breaker!

How little time we spend thinking of the things we're in bondage to: our worries and fears, our phobias, our anger, our pet-annoyances, grievances, and discomforts. We're slaves to our addictions, our bad habits, our controlling natures; our childhood traumas, pains, and disappointments.

Imagine having these chains broken for once and for all! It's not only possible, it's reality, proven over and over again by anyone who has taken up their cross and found help in God.

Happy are all who take refuge in him.