Travelling back home, I saw prisoners being taken back to prison on a pick up after what seemed like a long day’s work on someone’s farm. We were right behind them as we drove and I tried to observe the expressions on their faces as if to sort of vaguely gauge what was in their minds! Some seemed to be in a hearty mood, others looked blank or expressionless, maybe some were figuring out a prison break for the nth time; it wasn’t easy to tell what was on the inside of their minds, one can only imagine it.
At one time in my life, I visited prison dedicatedly for a few months because I had a loved one incarcerated. Much as I was on the outside yet on the inside was ‘the prison’. I was so full of anger and so much bitterness, because of the injustice that had been served at my front door. I was a ‘prisoner’ visiting a prison!
A prisoner is;
- A person who is or feels confined or trapped by a situation. – Google dictionary
- Someone restrained as if in prison; a prisonerof her own conscience. –Merriam – Webster
Prison is a dark place to be. It may take the form anger, unforgiveness, bitterness, failure, lust, envy, out bursts … name it and often we feel so justified especially because we may have been victimised; it is at that moment you and I become captives! To be a prisoner of these vices is to refuse the freedom that is freely given through Christ Jesus!
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed” Luke 4:18 [Bold mine]
That was the whole reason He came! To set you and me free from sin, failures, the anger or bitterness our heart that may have been caused by another person.
I thought some of those prisoners though in physical confinement, their inner man was no longer in ‘prison’ because they have embraced Him who knew no sin to became sin for them and were living in the freedom of His righteousness; while others are living contrary – ‘prisoners’ of the mind and in physical confinement.
Yes of course many of us feel sorry for the prisoners whether they are guilty or not because of the unbearable conditions in prison. Do we ever pause to wonder whether to feel sorry for ourselves is also in order? You do not have to be physically confined to be in prison, and its not until you realise the prison of your mind that you will start to desire to be set free.
Because we live in a fallen world, the door back into prison is a place every one of us will find ourselves, at every other turn; however the choice to walk in and close the door or not is with you. When you find yourself at that place, call upon the name of the Lord.
Embrace His finished work to release you from the prison of your past, and that which has been caused by circumstances beyond your control.
He loves you that much!!!!!
winizizinga 