Today is the day we celebrate our nation’s freedom yet there are so many people who are still in bondage. They are in bondage to schedules, deadlines, television, sports, alcohol, drugs, sex, profanity, and all the other things that come before Jesus and keep them from serving Him and spending time with Him as He has commanded us to do. He has told us that we should have no other gods before Him. However all too often we allow things that will one day mean nothing come before Him and our service to Him.
I received an email from someone a year ago who said “I am unable to stop watching soap operas on television and I really don’t want to stop watching them because they are the only companionship that I have.” My heart went out to this person because I was addicted to the soap operas for many years for the very same reason.
No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon. Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment? Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they? But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof. Matthew 6:24–26, 33-34 KJV
One day, it dawned on me that one of the reasons why I stayed discouraged and depressed was because I watched these soap operas which usually had sexual scenes, cursing, violence and fighting. I was filled with shame and disgust for myself. I asked God to please forgive me of my sin of watching those shows that bring disgrace and shame to Him. I have not watched one of those soap operas to this day. I found out that life itself is an ongoing soap opera. Every day the television, radio and computer broadcasts all these negative things. O that one day, God will move in a mighty miraculous way and we will have a television, radio and computer lineup that will have nothing negative, no sexual content, no profanity and no violence.
We can also be in bondage to ourselves. A lot of the time we have no trouble forgiving other people, but we find it very difficult, if not impossible, to forgive ourselves for what we have done in the past. This is one of the sneaky ways that satan attacks us because he tells us that we are no good, that nobody cares if we live or die, and that Jesus certainly couldn’t love us. That is a lie straight from the pits of hell. When Jesus forgives us, He never holds it against us again.
If you are in bondage to something, go to Jesus and ask Him to help you. He will be faithful to help you and He will not criticize or condemn you like other people sometimes do. He will put His arms of compassion, tenderness and love around you, hold you close to His heart and replace all of the negative things with positive things. He will replace them with His tenderness, compassion, peace, unconditional love, joy, mercy, grace and understanding. Thank God that when Jesus died on the cross for us, He made a way for us to have the bondage of sin and our past removed once and for all.