I gave myself Life.

Have you ever been in jail? No, not a physical building with razor wire on the top of all the fences, but a "Mental" Jail, a "Jail" of results of wrong decisions, a "Jail" of doubt, of troubles, of unforgivness, of unbelief, of sin? You feel trapped, you might as well be "Locked Up". You feel like there is no escape, that your doing your time in Solitary. No, your not physically in Jail, but you live your life in bondage. This bondage controls every aspect of your life, like a "Jail Guard" letting you go eat, go take a shower, go to the "Day Room" on their orders, when they want you to your freedom is gone, you are serving someone, something but it is not you and it is certainly not God.

I was watching the movie: "The Great Escape" over the weekend for about the 100th time, I guess. It is one of my all time favorite movies. All-Star cast, great suspense, action, and of course Steve McQueen riding a motorcycle over a fence, what more could you ask for in a movie? As I watched it this time, though, I had a different thought then the many times I watched it before. Why did they go to so much trouble to try and escape? Dumb question, they were POW's, in a war, and being held by the Nazi's, the most brutal, dictatorship ever in the history of the world. The premis of the movie was that this was a new POW camp, in which they put all the "Trouble" POW'S, that had tried repeatedly to escape. So, what else would they do? The plan was to dig tunnels, not just one but 3. They go into the trouble with digging the tunnels, the problem with were to put the dirt they remove to dig the tunnels, the task of getting fresh air, light, support inside the tunnels, all kinds of problems all kinds of trouble. Why did they do this? No one was going to break them out of the prison they found themselves in, they were on their on.

Like I started , have you ever been in Jail? You feel no one is coming for you, there is no bail to get you out. Your trapped because of what got you there. You made bad decisions and the result is to be locked away and have your freedom taken from you. What do you do? Relax, just live and let live, be as good of a prisoner as you can hoping for Parole? Or do you devise a plan to escape, knowing that if your caught your sentence will be extended and you could spend the rest of your life on the "Inside"? There are those that are very comfortable in jail. They would not know how to live or what to do if released. I have even known some who get "Paroled" and commit a crime very soon after just so they can go back to jail. It is what they know best, where they feel at "HOME".

Have you ever felt at "HOME" in your bondage? I have, it is fun, it is what I know, it is where I think I am the happiest. It is comfortable to be somewhere where we can feel at HOME> Why would we want to escape? Here we get "3 hots and a cot".

There is one solution to both of these ways of life. One for the ones that want to escape, get to freedom and get out of jail, and the same one who feel comfortable on the "Inside" and would do anything just to stay there for the rest of their life. The solution is: " Let God" He can and will, help us break out of our bondage's, sin, self. He will help us take control back of our own lives. He will send an Angel to open the gates of our cell like He did with Paul and Silas.

Acts 5:19
But an angel of the Lord came at night, opened the gates of the jail, and brought them out.

God will help us, but we have to want the help. What about the person, (I used to fit into this category), who does not want help? The guy who is happy in his sin? The person who loves the feeling bondage gives them? God can and will help them too, but there has to be a change of heart. You see, that is where prayer comes in. Those that know your situation and pray for you, and the Father who loves you can and will help your heart to change.

To escape our bondage, our prison, our cell, we must trust in the Lord, and we must want to escape. There are so many sins, bondage's that completely control our lives. The Alcoholic who looses his job because of his drinking problem, then his wife and family leave, then he goes to jail for DWI, then he gives up, "Why go on?" Those are decisions made, that Alcohol was more important then anything else in their life. It is also the same with any other addiction, Drugs, Porn, acquiring Wealth, gambling, acquiring "Things" , Power..............the list goes on and on and on.

Before God can enter the situation and help us, we have to want that help. Many times, more then naught, we have to hit "Rock bottom" before we finally give up and let God take over. And even then, and I speak from experience here, we do fine for a while, and then when everything is going well, slip back into that old jail. "What are you doing back here?" Says Ralph, the guard. "Just shut up and let me back in". We remember that old comfortable feeling and think we need it again. All the while God is waiting with open arms to take us back again. He never gives up on us, even when we give up on ourselves.

We don't have to gather wood for support in our tunnel, we don't have to figure where to spread the dirt so that the guards won't suspect anything, we don't have to spend hours and hours digging through dirt and trying to figure out how far the trees are. We don't have to steal a motorcycle and get caught in a razor wire while trying to escape. All we have to do is ask the Maker of the Universe for help. We must WANT that help, have reached the bottom and give up. "Lord, I can't do it anymore, please help me" I have prayed that prayer many times, and yes a few of them where inside a holding tank, or jail cell.

The only thing you need to remember is that God WILL NEVER give up on you. No matter where you find yourself, whatever you have done, whatever trouble your in, whatever kind of mess your addiction has gotten you in, turn around, ask God for help. Tell Him your ready to let Him have control, you cannot escape this Jail by yourself, you need HIS help. You won't need to fabricate shovels, the gates of your prison will just swing open, and maybe like Paul and Silas an Angel will appear and lead you to freedom.

Freedom, what a lovely word. We put ourselves into bondage, but God is willing to help us to FREEDOM. FREEDOM in Him. FREEDOM from Jail. Think about it, it is awesome.