Once you have broken free from what you know had you bound and kept you behind bars and you step out into freedom only to realize you are faced with the unknown and fear starts to creep in, don’t romanticize your prison!

The people of Israel where enslaved for years looking to be set free waiting to be made free! When freedom came they rejoiced, they were finally free. They said goodbye to a life of slavery and bondage and set out to freedom.  Once free fear of the unknown started to creep in, the complaining began, doubt settled in and it became real.  We don’t know what’s gonna happen?  Where will we end up? Where will food come from? Where will water come from? God provided for all yet they still had the nerve to want to go back they “romanticized their prison“ they even said “at least in Egypt we had”….

I stopped and my dramatic mind was like HOLD UP! How dare they?!  Did they not see the plagues? Did they not see the sea split in two? Did they not get mana on a daily basis? Water from a rock in the desert?  Wait you were crying out to God to free you and now you wanna go back?!  Your ancestors spoke about the day of freedom and you dreamt with that day, now you finally have it and you are saying it is better to go back and be a slave than to be in the unknown with God?  And then it hit me…how many times have we done the same thing? How many times  have we been set free and moved out of different prisons? Moved out of hurt, moved out of addiction, moved out of resentment and bitterness, moved out of horribly abusive or dysfunctional relationships only to face the unknown and become fearful because we rather go back to what we knew {even if it was a horrible prison we cried and fought to get out of} than face the unknown with God?

We begin to romanticize the prison we once lived in.  We begin to say it wasn’t that bad, the addiction wasn’t that deep.  The abuse was my fault, maybe I can go back and it will be different?  Walking around free all the while reminiscing with the past that had you bound just because we are fearful of what living free looks like because we have never known it or lived it.  But God knows.

Jeremiah 29:11-13 says   ¹¹ For I know the plans and thoughts that I have for you,’ says the Lord, ‘plans for peace and well-being and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope. ¹² Then you will call on Me and you will come and pray to Me, and I will hear [your voice] and I will listen to you. ¹³ Then [with a deep longing] you will seek Me and require Me [as a vital necessity] and [you will] find Me when you search for Me with all your heart.

Don’t look back!  Don’t go back!  Don’t let fear of the unknown with God, cause you to look back and think for even a second that being a slave and being bound is better than the unknown with God.  Just because it is familiar does not mean it is safe. Just because you got used to it does not mean that is how you are supposed to live. Just because you don’t know what the next step after freedom is does not mean you shouldn’t take it!  There is a phrase I say all the time when things that are out of my control occur and fear starts to creep in and at the risk of it sounding like a common answer to a situation it has become my prayer of faith “God you know what I don’t know” let me see what you see, let me learn what you want to teach me, let me walk where you want me to go.

My prayer for you today is that when fear and doubt start to creep in you remember who knows all and set you free in the first place.  That you remember that he whom the Son sets free is free indeed and Don’t Romanticize the prison He set you free from.

Merita’s Heart