This is from a bible study in prison. We learned quite a bit
that can be used by anyone seeking God. This is just one bit:
“I Wanna Be Free”
It’s called an emotional heart attack. We get so overwhelmed
with “The Drama” of life that we panic. It may not be as severe as a panic
attack or an anxiety attack so we ignore the fact that we are acting out.
Samson had one. He was constantly
turned against by his own people. It seemed like nothing he did was good
enough. He could always turn to God but after a while, he got tired of not
having someone human to talk to. So he turned to Delilah. I always thought she
was his wife or girlfriend. But she was neither. He had a wife. And they don’t
suggest that their relationship was any more than her being a shoulder to lean
on. It doesn’t even seem like she set out to set him up. She just had a
stronger allegiance to her people than to him. She could have been anyone. She
could have been a homeboy from the other side of town. She could have been a
coworker having a drink with you after work.
Today, in our lives, pressures
build up and our emotions beat us up. We run to the wrong people, bad habits,
old sins for help. Sometimes we find ourselves unloading ourselves on the first
person who will listen without even considering who we are talking to.
Again, I must reiterate, that I’m
not talking about panic attack levels. So many of us have so much baggage AND
we are so used to taking the path of least resistance that one bad day at work
can lead us to talking to the wrong person, firing up a cigarette after ten
years, cussing, sleeping around or even just flirting with ideas you turned
your back on long ago.
At the extreme, people claimed to
have “Snapped”, they say they “Couldn’t Make It Anymore”. “They let me out of
prison and I walked right into another one”. But that’s the extreme. You read
that and say to yourself – I would notice if it gets that bad. But what about
when you’re just a little bit more uncomfortable than you usually are.
In prison the stakes seem a little higher. Physical freedom
is the focus. But whether or not you are in prison, - the real prison is the
one inside ourselves. If we don’t get free inside ourselves, we’ll end up right
back in prison or locked up on the outside
Prison is a walking cemetery, and so is “life” until we
decide to change.
When we put our hope inside God’s
hope, we are free. “Walketh not in the counsel of the un-Godly” (Psalms 1:1-3) The
counsel of the un-Godly is not just a bunch of hoodlums on the corner. The
counsel of the un-Godly is anything you turn to to relieve stress that is not
God.
It’s easy if the un-Godly things in
your life are people. CUT THEM LOOSE! Forgive them and let them go! …or the
other way around if the situation requires.
But when they are things, we tend
to let them become Delilah and weasel their way into a prominent position in
our lives. It’s not always the hard stuff. It’s TV. It’s playing golf. It’s
Facebook. It’s whatever we do to avoid dealing with ourselves and instead of
seeking God.
And I’m not saying they are bad. I
sure as hell ain’t getting off Facebook. It’s just being careful to not replace
God with distractions. In ALL things, we should seek God. It’s sad to allow
ourselves to be distracted by anything. And it’s potentially destructive to put
anything in a Delilah position in your life. Most times God is available right
inside our ordinary lives. We just don’t seek Him. When we look at our average
everyday life we don’t see God. We see a rut.
Seeking God is an exercise (and I
use that word exercise on purpose) in endurance. It is believing long after we
got tired of believing. It’s holding on to our marriages. It’s staying focused
on our real brothers and sisters. Staying vigilant lasts a little longer than a
staring contest.
Hang in there, even if you get
sidetracked. (Ephesians 2:1-5 ) There is a promise. (Genesis 22:16) God wins in
the end.
