What's your prison sentence?

"Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed." -Romans 6:16-17

“No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money."- Matthew 6:24

Unfortunately, even today, people being in bondage is not uncommon. People all over the world are imprisoned for things we take for granted every day. Even more lately, we have been hearing about people who are enslaved. We should be talking about that. We should be speaking for those who cannot speak for themselves. However, I want to talk about those who are imprisoned because of their own decisions. We talk about these people, and hardly ever make excuses for them, but let me ask you, how often do you make an excuse to God about the thing you are imprisoned to?

We know we cannot serve two masters. We are either in or out. We either serve sin and are obedient to what the world says, or we serve God and are obedient to a higher calling and purpose for our life.

In my senior year of high school, our whole class took a trip to the jail for our civics class, to learn how the prison systems work. Something that was supposed to be informative, maybe scare us a little and an afternoon away from school, really got me thinking.

I have never been so uncomfortable as I was there that day. I was scared and very, very sad. I started thinking about the people in that jail and what their perception of truth was. I wondered how many of those people will continue in and out of the prison system for the rest of their lives because they don't know God has purposed them for more, or because it is a constant for them. I thought about the people who are scared of prison- whether they were on the inside or outside. Then I got to thinking about why I was so uncomfortable and distraught about the people I could physically see who had made sinful decisions, and that got them in a bad situation, yet I was unphased by those in bondage to sin all around me.

Does physical prison scare you? What about being spiritually enslaved to sin?

What prison are you living in?

These are questions are things I had to ask myself.

It is easy to cast judgment on others, but what about reflecting on yourself and seeing you're imprisoned to your schedule, money, gossip, poor thoughts, fear, discouragement, etc.?

While I wasn't physically enchained, I was allowing some of these, or maybe all, to sneak into my life.

On my social media feed, I have been seeing videos of prison revival. Tons of lives surrendered to the Lord. People who may never get to start their physical lives over as free people are starting fresh in the Spirit. That is so powerful. That Christ, so perfect and blameless died for all sins. None are too great to be forgiven. There are no outcasts in the Kingdom. Sin is sin is sin, we are all equal, we are all sinners and all saved by the same blood. (Romans 3:23)

So, I hope today, you will choose to be set free. I hope that while you may not be physically imprisoned, you are not letting sin bind you. Church, we need to repent and be set free. Don't carry around a burden that has already been dealt with.

"Verily I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven." -Matthew 18:18