What I Learned In Church: Prison

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.