leave behind the chains

What's your favorite TV theme?  I've always liked the intro to the Office.  Jakob also really likes that one.  When he was a baby, we could play it when he was crying, and he would immediately stop.  It was magical.  I ended up putting it on my phone for emergencies and long car trips.

We've had a theme song in this current series on spiritual warfare.  By now, you've probably noticed that you've sung the words, "break every chain," numerous times.  Jesus breaks the chains of bondage in our lives and sets us free.  It's something we should never tire of singing and celebrating.  If we are walking in freedom - not to do whatever we want, but freedom from sin - then we should excitedly be singing of the One who has set us free.  Sometimes we don't feel like celebrating, though, because we don't feel very free. I think the primary reason we don't feel free is that we tend to carry around the chains from which we've been set free.  They're broken.  They have no power over us. We just like them too much to leave them behind.  We tell ourselves that we can't help ourselves.  It's just who we are.  We're only human after all.  But the reality is that, in Christ, we always have the freedom to choose not to sin.  We have the power to leave behind the chains.  Hebrews 12 tells us to set them aside, so we can run well the race set before us.  Jesus also says in John 8 that although you were once slaves to sin, but you are no more, because when the Son sets you free, you really are free from it.  And finally, we're told in 1 Corinthians 10 that God will always make it possible for us to walk away from temptation.

The chains are not holding us.  It may just be that we're holding the chains. Leave behind the chains.  Walk in freedom.  "There is power in the name of Jesus to break every chain."

I will leave you with these lyrics from the OC Supertones, from their song "Go Your Way."  They have spoken to me in times when I was stuck in false freedom, choosing sinful bondage over freedom in Christ. "What I thought of as my freedom was a prison without walls. I held on tightly to the shackles that I hate, but this wasn't freedom at all... I thought that I'd gone too far.  Then I heard You call my name.  Return to me child.   I am eager to forgive, but leave behind the chains."