11 Nov Walking into Freedom

God desires to open the doors of your “public jail” and bring you out. But He is much more concerned about a “private jail” we may not be aware of.

Then the high priest and all his associates, who were members of the party of the Sadducees, were filled with jealousy. They arrested the apostles and put them in the public jail. But during the night an angel of the Lord opened the doors of the jail and brought them out. “Go, stand in the temple courts,” he said, “and tell the people all about this new life.” – Acts 5:17-20

Our society is all about freedom – especially the freedom to do as we wish. That explains our frustration when we find ourselves in a public jail: circumstances in school, camp, or in our workplace that trap and cripple us.

As students, it is not uncommon to feel as though CAPs, GPAs and MSGs define who we are; we find ourselves caged up in a wire mesh of stress. In our journey from ah boys to men, regimentation can feel like imprisonment. Hurtful words exchanged in a fresh workplace can become emotional cells we feel trapped within.

God desires to open the doors of your “public jail” and bring you out. But He is much more concerned about a “private jail” we may not be aware of.

He yearns for us to step out of the jail of religion, into new life: an intimate relationship with Him through Jesus.

In Acts 5:19, an angel of the Lord instructed the apostles to stand in the temple court, the embodiment of religion in those days, and “tell the people all about this new life”. This new life starts with our hearts. It begins not with our love for God, but His love for us.

Take time off our busy, cluttered life, sit back, close our eyes, and remember the times that Love came down and rescued each of us.

That period of depression God lifted us out from, the family tensions he eased, the loving community He placed us in, the gentle whisper of love in the dead of night where loneliness seemed to prevail, the excruciating pain he bore on our behalf on the cross…

God. Loves. Fiercely.

When we soak in memories of His amazing grace, supernatural affection springs from our hearts for Him, and slowly but surely, our life is transformed as an overflow of that well-spring of love we have for our Father.

Step out from a jail of religion, a captivity of to-dos or do-not-dos. Walk into a new life: an intimate relationship with our Father in heaven.

Darrell Tan