Unshackled Moments ~ February 17

“They can be analyzed, counseled, reasoned with, prayed over, threatened, beaten, or locked up, but they will not stop until they want to stop.” 

(Narcotics Anonymous) Basic Text, p. 62

One of the daily readings I use started today's reading with the above quote. It's such a sad truth for family and friends but a true statement for addicts and alcoholics. I know, because being raised in a Godly home and being loved by my parents wasn't enough to get or keep me clean and sober during my quarter century using career. But this quote is also very true for the Prodigal and the Stranger At The Kingdom's Gate, regardless of the form the shackles manifest.

Some may never use drugs or alcohol, but without a relationship with God find themselves just as imprisoned and trapped in an every tightening spiral of pain and misery as any addict. Prayers of family and friends do help. I may not have lived long enough to recover without them. But no matter the bondage, none of us can be free without surrender, and only as individuals can we lay down our arms (our will) and declare from where the sun now stands I will fight God no more, forever (a paraphrase of Chief Joseph's surrender to the United States). 

No one can surrender for anyone else.  Jesus lived in surrender to the Father in a manner that made it possible for us to surrender. An earthly example would be Lee surrendering to Grant. What Lee did ended the war for those who accepted it, but meant nothing to those who chose to still fight and raid in some areas. Until we get tired enough of the fight, the destruction and the death in our lives the war will never end for us, despite the fact that the war ended with an act of surrender on a cross long before any of us were ever born.

Father, thank you for making it so that Jesus' act of surrender covers my rebellion against you and brings me by grace into Your kingdom. But help me to remember that I have to take up my cross and follow Him, that I have to surrender this day and every day in order to keep from slipping back into civil war with You. Help me to remember that victory over the things that hold me captive and freedom from the shackles in this life comes from complete and unconditional surrender to You. Amen.