Shackled

  This will be a follow up to my previous post "unshackled". If you haven't read that it would probably best to read first. After we Unshackle ourselves, we see the blatant prison around us. We see the key and the key master gets us out. Great! What do we do? Of course, look for ways to lock ourselves up again. We are in a consistent blinding circle of imprisonment. As a person who has a relationship with Christ we feel we need to do our part. We get up in the morning and think, I am going to be such a good person today. Shackled.
  We have set ourselves up for failure. Failure is a learning experience. It can teach us so many things. Consistent failure can lead to discouragement. We treat our relationship with Christ as if it is a worldly one. As if  He gives 50 and you give 50. It takes two to make it work. However, Christ expects and wants to do it all. He wants to be the good that you can't be. He wants for you above all to realize this. In this world we will never fully understand this. We will always think that in someway, we are super productive at being good. It is our own version of good that we are good at. We even look at other people and say they are not my version of good. They sin more than me. Shackled.
   It is very hard for us to look at somebody and not sit in judgement. We look at their life with distastefulness. We don't see our own sin in that moment only those of the other person. We would all go to the Judgement unqualified to enter in the presence of God. We can judge a person by their sin. However, if God does not see Christ we all are unqualified. We should remember that we are made in the image of God. As God has meant for us to have a certain relationship with Christ, it was meant to be personal. It was meant to be singular. When Christ died, it was individual relationships that he was saving. We must commit to that individuality. When we judge it should be unto our own heart and not that of another.
  Just as a son or a daughter has an individual relationship with their parents so does the Church with Christ. We convene as a family. We worship and hold praise together. Just as a son or daughter that is separated from a family alone they become lost. It is important to realize we not only have a relationship with Christ but those who have a relationship with him. They are as family. It should be a priority to uphold and grow this family. This is of course is His work in us that it happens. We must not shackle ourselves to the idea that we do it.
  We hold on to chains with an iron hand grasp. We want control. We need to be the master. Meanwhile, this world will rip us to shreds. My advice to anybody is let go. I learned when dealing with a migraine that was long past time to be gone, I had no control. I still don't. My body does what it wants. Sometimes I wake up it is just a little pain. Sometimes I wake up and wished I hadn't woken up. All with a prayer: Lord, bring me through this day. He has not failed me. I relinquish the control to Him. I stop thinking about the pain. I start thinking about the tasks that lay ahead. When I don't do this I am thinking about how painful tasks will be and it gets harder to do them. When I try and control it is 100% failure. I just stopped doing it. I stopped worrying too. I try and do what I can do. If it isn't done I don't worry about it. I don't worry of another person's ill opinion of me. I don't get offended either. If one honestly accesses me as being prideful and argumentative, I would agree. I am. No reason to get offended. I am easily frustrated too. It is easy to point out others faults but I should just as easily come up with a list for myself. If I can't I am shackled to the belief that it is another persons problem. If I am having a problem in a relationship the blame should fall on me. How else would I fix it? This brings me right back to letting go. Let go of control in your life. It will do you good. The chains that bind only serve you here. Eternity waits unchained by time that has shackled us in this world.