Finding Security

What do we do when the security of our circumstances and situation is shattered? Dalyn Woodard shares from Habakkuk on what it means to find our security in relationship with God and three ways to move from a circumstance to a relationship orientation. The message, "Finding Security," is about 51 minutes long, and was recorded at Nacogdoches Christian Fellowship on Wednesday, May 30, 2018. It's our prayer that you are blessed and ministered to as you listen.

The first message in the series on the greatest little book on faith, Habakkuk, "Fear, Frustration, And Faith," can be found here, and the second message, "The Middle Of The Ride," can be found here. The third message, "Good God It's A Bad World," can be found here. The fourth message, "While We Wait," can be found here, and the fifth message, "Benefits Of Prayer," can be found here.

This site is free. If this blessed, helped and or informed you, the best thing you can do is pass it on via the social buttons below. And please subscribe or follow Unshackled Life Ministries on Facebook.

Unshackled Life Ministries is grateful for every person that reads the daily Unshackled Moments and or listens to the messages. I want to thank those who have clicked "like" on something that blessed or ministered to them. It is encouraging to know that God is using this ministry to help and bless others. Please remember that if God used something from this ministry to help, encourage or bless you, it could also bless someone else. Would you help get the devotions to more people by sharing the Moments and messages that you read or listen to? Hitting the share button instead of or in addition to the like button will help us reach more people with the good news of freedom and the encouragement to live an Unshackled Life. Thank you and God bless.

If you would like to have notifications of new Unshackled Moments and messages sent to you via email, send an email to dalynwoodard@mail.com requesting to be added to the list. You can also follow Dalyn Woodard (@Dalynsmsings) on Twitter or Unshackled Life Ministries on Facebook.

Unshackled Moments ~ May 30, 2018 ~ The Beauty Of Transparency

There is a beautiful transparency to honest disciples who never wear a false face and do not pretend to be anything but who they are.

- Brennan Manning

It's almost impossible to avoid trying to be what we feel we should be. Firstly, because we want to improve and grow, and secondly because we want others to approve, respect and admire us for the changes we've made, for how much we've grown and for who we've become. The first reason is not really all that bad or dangerous. We should strive for perfection, forgetting the past and pressing on toward the goal of loving God and loving others. It is a good thing to try to follow the example of Christ and live and love as He did. It is good to look at the lives of those who have what we want and then try to do what they did. The little boy banging on the wall with a plastic hammer trying to be like his daddy may eventually grow from that place of pretending to the place of being a master carpenter. It's OK to pretend a little to get the ball rolling. It's not so much fake it 'till you make it as it is learning by trying to do.

I didn't want to be of service to others when I first began the journey to recovery. I wanted others to be of service to me. But I also wanted to be happy, joyous and free like others who were of service were. So I did service work. Eventually, I began to see how much it helped me and how good it felt to help others without expecting a return from them, and I began to seek out service because I wanted to do it. But whether it's service or something else we're trying to be in order to grow and change for the better, we must remember that the ultimate goal is not to grow and change but to connect with Daddy. We must remember that we can not be what we are not or really change without the transformative power of the Spirit working in us to do for us what we are not able to do ourselves. Finally, we need to give ourselves room and time. It is a process, and we will fall short. It is extremely rare to learn how to ride a bicycle without some falls or learn to play a musical instrument without some sour notes.

But trying to be what we are not to impress others or to gain the approval of others is another matter. Coming from that motivation, pretending and trying to be something you are not leads to hypocrisy. It leads to feeling as though we must hide our mistakes and shortcomings to keep others from seeing them and thinking less of us. But there really is something beautiful about a transparent disciple. Yes, I am no longer the man I used to be, but I also don't have to pretend that I have grown into some spiritual giant. Look at me, look at how much I know or do or how well I walk this tight rope. Nope. Look at me as little as possible. I don't know everything, but I know the One who does and who freely gives wisdom and guidance to those who seek Him. Sure there are times when I do well and walk in love. But there are also times when I don't want to be of service, I don't want to care about and don't even like others. There are times I slip back into self and where my motives are not pure. And I can't walk much at all, never mind the tight rope, without the grace of God making me able. When we lose the mask and stop pretending, we become transparent. And transparency allows others to see what God has really done, what He is continuing to do and how He restores and loves us even when we don't live  up to the progress we made yesterday.

Sometimes I soar and sometimes I struggle. And in both cases God is there. He loves us as we are, not as we should be, so we don't have to pretend to gain His favor or try to impress Him. And if we get a grasp at how much Daddy really loves us, then we don't have to worry about what others may think.


This site is free. If this blessed, helped and or informed you, the best thing you can do is pass it on via the social buttons below. And please subscribe or follow Unshackled Life Ministries on Facebook.

Unshackled Life Ministries is grateful for every person that reads the daily Unshackled Moments, the weekly Unshackled Echo and or listens to the Audio Messages. I want to thank those who have clicked "like" on something that blessed or ministered to them on social media, commented on the blog or replied to an email subscription. It is encouraging to know that God is using this ministry to help and bless others. Please remember that if God used something from this ministry to help, encourage or bless you, it could also bless someone else. Would you help get the devotions and sermons to more people by sharing this? Hitting the share button or forwarding this to a friend will help us reach more people with the good news of freedom and the encouragement to live an Unshackled Life. Thank you and God bless.

Unshackled Moments ~ May 29, 2018 ~ Why I Don't Live For Jesus Anymore

This month I celebrated the anniversary of my recovery. I felt blessed to have a time surrounded by family and friends to rejoice that I have been set free from the obsession to drink and drug for 8 years now. But my recovery has been far from perfect. Without my last relapse I would be half way through my ninth year at this point, mere months away from double digits.

And even though I have not picked up in these past 8 years, I have been selfish, I have had moments ruled by anger, I have failed to walk out what I believe. My goodness, I don't really visit, much less live in, the neighborhood of perfection. Today that doesn't kill me like it used to, and I want to share why, because it may help you as well. This little bit of understanding that I received at nearly 40 years of age has made all the difference in my life.

I grew up in the faith, in a loving Christian home with parents who practiced what they preached (one very literally, since my dad has been a preacher most of my life). I decided early on in life to live for Jesus. And I failed miserably and repeatedly. By the time I became a teen, I felt convinced most of the time that God couldn't love me. I began turning to other things to try to fill the emptiness in my life, to change the way I felt and to distract from my fears and brokenness. That didn't work out so well, but I couldn't stop trying. From time to time I would have a moment of clarity and see that I needed to change my life and live for Jesus. I failed. Sometimes I put on a decent show of it, but no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't do it.

I remember once as a teen being prayed over at a youth lock-in and feeling free from a cocaine addiction for the first time in a long time. I rejoiced. I praised. I even broke down and told my Dad that I had been using and was now clean for two whole weeks! It was only a week or so later that I picked back up, and I remember the shame. It wasn't only the drink and drug. I wasn't a good Christian in any way, and the shame nearly killed me. One of the reasons I kept picking up is that the chemicals numbed the fear and shame of failure, even as I made the failure worse.

I tried to live a moral life until I gave up in disgust. Then I lived like it didn't matter. If all I could be is a sinner, I might as well be the best sinner I can be and try to have a little fun as I raced toward destruction. My identity basically could be defined as a person who believed in Jesus, even claimed to love Him most days, but could not walk with Him, could not do what was right, and didn't really believe he was loved by God. I flipped back and forth between trying and failing and not even bothering to try. I constantly condemned myself.

I could admit I was wrong at times. OK, you're forgiven, just don't let it happen again. Sometimes I got that message from others. All times I gave that message to myself. Go and sin no more. Only I did. Over and over and over again. I hated myself for it. How could God feel any differently? He hated my sin worse than I did. No matter how many times I heard the message of grace, I lived a life of performance, expectation and shame.

And as a result, I couldn't do good consistently or well. If you struggle with living for Jesus and doing good, it may very well be that your foundation and starting place is one of shame and performance anxiety. When you mess up do you beat yourself in hopes of getting the lesson well enough not to mess up again? At least in that area or way? If so, you are making things worse, not better.

Shame and guilt can push us to want to do better, but they lead to a burden. Got to be more, do more, be disciplined. This often leads to religious performance, like the pharisee who controls everything he can to cover the shame of all that he can't control. Our identity becomes tied to our morality. When we're doing good we see ourselves as good.  When we fail, we are losers and failures. So we begin to hide our shortcomings and mistakes as much as we can. Until finally there are only three options to get through the mess or life. One is to give up, since we can't keep up the moral standard we set for ourselves, much less God's standard of perfection. Just quit trying and live immorally. The second is to live a double life. The moral life mask that we show the world and the immoral face we expose in private and see in the mirror. But double lives last half as long.

The third option is to surrender the fight and to stop living for Jesus. I don't live for Jesus anymore. I don't even try to. Wait a minute preacher, isn't that just the first option? No. I didn't say I lived for myself or lived for the world or lived for sin. I simply said I don't live for Jesus. I don't start from that place of shame that says don't do that again. Be better. Do it right. Straighten up. I don't beat myself up over my mistakes and then try to determine to finally live like a good Christian is supposed to live. I don't try to be moral.

Instead I try to remember. Instead of living like a moral person (which, in all honestly, I am not), I try to live like a person who is loved. When I get lost in the wonder of how much my wife loves me, all I want to do is love her back. I do a good enough job of it that she feels like I am a good husband, and for that I am grateful.  But I don't think about trying to be a good husband. I don't start from the questions of what do I need to do to be a good husband or what are my responsibilities as a husband? Ever. Being a husband is not a duty I am trying to perform or figure out how to do well. Most days I don't even think about it.

I start from she loves me, and I want to love her back. What can I do, right this moment, to love her and let her know how much I love her. That's it. Every good husband point I may have attained comes from simply loving her and doing what comes naturally to someone being loving and not from a to-do check list of duties and attributes of a good husband. And when I fall short, and I do, I rejoice in her love and forgiveness, which makes me naturally love her even more, which cuts down on the mess ups.

The same is true of my relationship with God. By grace I have been brought into relationship. He loves me! As I am, not as I should be. When my identity has nothing to do with my goodness or lack of, and everything to do with being one of the beloved, the natural response is to love Him back. I don't do what's  right because I'm a good person. I do it, when I do, because of love. I don't live for Jesus. I live through Jesus. Somewhere along the way, about a decade ago, I let go and just let Daddy love me without trying to earn it or deserve it.

I let go of trying to be perfect. I let go of even trying to be good. I let go of trying to live for Jesus. And instead I live to be loved and the natural response is to love in return.  I entered a place of rest from the struggle and a place of grace where I can acknowledge and accept my mistakes and shortcomings. They are where I experience the forgiveness and love of God. Instead of beating myself up when I fail, which I do, I can run to Daddy and rejoice that He still loves me and accepts me, which only makes me love Him more. The result of that is that I haven't needed something other than God to change the way I feel and I haven't had to escape fear and shame for a while now. I share them with my Daddy and let the Spirit comfort me and accept the forgiveness that Jesus provided. And the result of that, is that now that I have quit fighting to be good and moral, I live a life characterized by more morality and goodness than ever before. I don't try to live without mistakes, nor do I live to make mistakes. I live love because my identity is one of being loved by God.

What I have found, you can have too, because God loves you as much as He loves me, and He really really loves me. He loves you as you are, not as you should be, but He loves you enough not to leave you as you are. All He wants from you is for you to accept His love and to trust His love for you. You don't have to earn it or deserve it or figure out how not to disappoint Him and let Him down. Put relationship over the check-list of requirements, and the requirements begin to come naturally. It may not be instant. We claim progress rather than perfection, but change will come as we pursue Him rather than change.


This site is free. If this blessed, helped and or informed you, the best thing you can do is pass it on via the social buttons below. And please subscribe or follow Unshackled Life Ministries on Facebook.

Unshackled Life Ministries is grateful for every person that reads the daily Unshackled Moments, the weekly Unshackled Echo and or listens to the Audio Messages. I want to thank those who have clicked "like" on something that blessed or ministered to them on social media, commented on the blog or replied to an email subscription. It is encouraging to know that God is using this ministry to help and bless others. Please remember that if God used something from this ministry to help, encourage or bless you, it could also bless someone else. Would you help get the devotions and sermons to more people by sharing this? Hitting the share button or forwarding this to a friend will help us reach more people with the good news of freedom and the encouragement to live an Unshackled Life. Thank you and God bless.

Unshackled Moments ~ May 28, 2018 ~ Although Is Better Than Because

It really is hard sometimes not to feel the need to earn God's love. Or at least to deserve it. Perhaps because of the combination of Memorial Day today and June 6 being on my mind because it is both D-Day and the day before Leah's heart surgery, but my mind keeps going to the movie Saving Private Ryan. In the movie, several men make a sacrifice on behalf of another soldier that they had never even met before, the ultimate sacrifice. One of the soldiers who dies tells Private Ryan in his final words to "earn this." Cut to an old man surrounded by his family at that soldier's grave saying that he did his best and hopes that he earned what was sacrificed for him. Ryan asks his wife to tell him that he's lived a good life and is a good man.

It's a tear jerking scene, and it gets me every time I see it. In part, because I know that for years I did not live a good life and was not a good man. I wanted to be, but couldn't. Even now, I can not be as good as I know I should be, as good as I wish to be. I'm not unique. Paul called himself the chief of sinners and said what he knew he should do he couldn't do, and what he knew he should not do, he did. Daddy sacrificed His only begotten Son for us. The Son willingly gave up His life so that we could live. And we all know that we don't deserve such a sacrifice or such great love.  So we try to earn it, to deserve it. But we can't.

And to continue to try disrespects the gift. We love because. Because He first loved us. Because of what He has done for us. Because the Spirit of God living in us enables us to love. We love because to love someone who so perfectly loves us is the logical and natural response. And that is OK. That is as it should be. To turn to God with gratitude and love Him because He loves us is the best that we can do, and it pleases Him no end.

But we don't have to earn or deserve His love. Daddy doesn't love us because. He never has and never will. Daddy loves us although. Although we didn't deserve it. Although we were and are a mess. Although we fell short and will fall short again. Although we were selfish and broken and not good enough. Although anything and everything, He loves us and did everything needed to make a way for us to love Him back, to have relationship with Him, to have a life worth living and to be free to choose relationship.

Although is better than because. With because I have to to perform. I have to meet and maintain a standard of rightness that would make it the natural and logical response of God to accept and love me. And I can never do that. Neither can you. Because sucks. Because we will never be enough to deserve God putting on flesh and dying in our place. Although is grace. Although is wonderful. Although is undeserved and simply needs to be accepted. Because He lived and died and lives and although I deserved to be rejected, I am free to love Him and have relationship with Him. And so are you. Today, let us accept the love we are given although and not worry about because, because God never once said for us to earn His sacrifice.



This site is free. If this blessed, helped and or informed you, the best thing you can do is pass it on via the social buttons below. And please subscribe or follow Unshackled Life Ministries on Facebook.

Unshackled Life Ministries is grateful for every person that reads the daily Unshackled Moments, the weekly Unshackled Echo and or listens to the Audio Messages. I want to thank those who have clicked "like" on something that blessed or ministered to them on social media, commented on the blog or replied to an email subscription. It is encouraging to know that God is using this ministry to help and bless others. Please remember that if God used something from this ministry to help, encourage or bless you, it could also bless someone else. Would you help get the devotions and sermons to more people by sharing this? Hitting the share button or forwarding this to a friend will help us reach more people with the good news of freedom and the encouragement to live an Unshackled Life. Thank you and God bless.

Unshackled Echo ~ May 26, 2018 ~ Watching Peter Walk On Water

Today's Unshackled Echo was previously published on

March 9, 2015.

And Peter answered Him and said, “Lord, if it is You, command me to come to You on the water.” So He said, “Come.” And when Peter had come down out of the boat, he walked on the water to go to Jesus. But when he saw that the wind was boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink he cried out, saying, “Lord, save me!” And immediately Jesus stretched out His hand and caught him, and said to him, “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?”

- Matthew 14:28-31

Yesterday I watched Peter walk on water. I'm being serious. His name wasn't Peter, and the physical surface may not have been actual H2O, but  a man trusted God, took a deep breath, stepped out of the boat of his comfort zone and went walking to where  Jesus called him. It was awesome. It was beautiful. It was filled with stumble starts, breaks in gait and a couple of near misses on the fall or sink front. But He did it. And I hope that today he's rejoicing in the faith he showed in the walk and the faithfulness of the Savior who called him and brought him safely through the stroll rather than doubting or beating himself up for any perceived imperfections or failures in how the walk was made.

It makes me wonder how Peter handled his stroll on the waves in the hours, days, weeks and years to come. If you're like me, you tend to focus on the fact that he got out of the boat and walked on water! How amazing! Sure he got out there and got scared, but it's so awesome that Jesus was right there. The second he cried out for help, Jesus reached out and saved him. When I look at Peter's story I see faith and grace and deliverance and the miracle power of God working in someone's life. That is what I saw yesterday as well, which is why I started this by saying that I saw Peter walk on water yesterday.

But what if I had been Peter. Well, first there's a good chance that part of Matthew 14 wouldn't  have been written because I like the security of the boat. I'm not sure that I would have asked Jesus if I could come to Him. If Jesus called me, I'd like to think I would've stepped out in faith and obedience and taken a timid step onto the water, but to ask? Then, if I had done it exactly like Peter and my nature didn't come into play until after we got back into the boat and the wind stopped (v. 32), how would I have looked at what happened.

I would love to say that I'd go leaping and dancing and praising God at getting to walk on water and shouting of His saving grace. But I know me. That little part at the end of v 31 where Jesus says, "O you of little faith, why did you doubt?" would've killed me. Little faith? If I have  to have more faith than it takes to step out of the boat in a storm and walk on water, I'm screwed. Lord, you might as well pull the plug now, because I'll never have enough faith to please You.

Or why did I get so caught up in the situation that I took my eyes off Jesus, got scared and started to sink? Seriously, I knew it was impossible when I started out, so like Jesus asked, why did I doubt? After the first couple of steps shouldn't I have been running on the waves in complete trust like a child who truly believes the pond is frozen enough to support his weight? Yeah I could beat myself up for that doubt and stumble for years, so much so that I never got out of the boat of my comfort zone again, at least not on my idea. Jesus calls, two or three times so I know that I know He wants me on the water? OK. I'll try to squash my fear and respond to His call. But that wondrous cry of "Lord, if it's really You out there in the storm of the unknown, in the impossible and far beyond the safety of the good ship Comfort Zone, if it's You, tell me to come, and I'll come!," that volunteering, it's probably not happening.

Peter continued to step out into the realm of the impossible. I don't know how often he answered the call and how often he asked to be called, but he walked on water more than once. I believe my friend from yesterday will step out of the boat again, and I suspect that it'll be easier and the walk a little more steady and confident next time. But they've inspired me. I want to get out of the boat. Even as I write the words of the last sentence my stomach tightened. Be careful what you wish for, you just might get it, right?

I want to do more than obey and get out of the boat. I want to volunteer. I want to keep  my eyes on Jesus and my stride steady, but if my eyes get on me and how impossible it is for me to walk on water and I start to sink, I want to be as quick as Peter to cry out to my Savior for help and deliverance. Then, when He saves me from my self and my fear, I want to walk with Him back to safety or on through to the other side of the sea, if that's what He chooses, and watch the wind stop blowing. I want to take the words of Jesus as a compassionate reminder that He's got this, He's got me. I don't have to ever doubt that. I want to see in His eyes the joy that He got from me wanting to come to Him and for getting out of the boat rather than beat myself up for slipping back into self. I want to dry off, hug Jesus, thank Him for saving me, and get back on the waves. Because it's on the waves that the miracles happen. It's walking on the water that shows others the power of God and the way to Jesus.

Lord, if it's You out there beyond my comfort, call me, and I will come. Help me, and I will walk, even through and on the impossible. Help me to keep my eyes on You and off me so that I will not fail, but if and when I do sink, be quick to save me and let me see the joy in Your eyes and not disappointment. Let my walk with You be so filled with the impossible that can only happen because of You that others call to You and get out of their boat. Thank You for calming the winds in my mind and life, for quieting the storms when I lean on You. Amen.

This site is free. If this blessed, helped and or informed you, the best thing you can do is pass it on via the social buttons below. And please subscribe or follow Unshackled Life Ministries on Facebook.

Unshackled Life Ministries is grateful for every person that reads the daily Unshackled Moments, the weekly Unshackled Echo and or listens to the Audio Messages. I want to thank those who have clicked "like" on something that blessed or ministered to them on social media, commented on the blog or replied to an email subscription. It is encouraging to know that God is using this ministry to help and bless others. Please remember that if God used something from this ministry to help, encourage or bless you, it could also bless someone else. Would you help get the devotions and sermons to more people by sharing this? Hitting the share button or forwarding this to a friend will help us reach more people with the good news of freedom and the encouragement to live an Unshackled Life. Thank you and God bless.

Unshackled Moments ~ May 25, 2018 ~ Dodging Shadows

I twisted the throttle and gave the motorcycle some gas, pulling out of my driveway onto the black top. I quickly arrived at a cruising speed of about 45 mph, not wanting to go too fast on the residential  county road. A dog I hadn't seen before rushed from the side of the road to greet me, and I sped up a little to insure that it wouldn't get out in front of me. I turned my head and looked at the dog as I went past, mainly to see how it was going to act in case I encountered it again while on the motorcycle. As I turned my attention back to the road in front of me, I saw a black shape dart across the road. Instantly I knew I would hit it, whatever it was.

Hitting animals with a motorcycle can be more nerve wracking and dangerous than when in a car. I felt my navel pucker as I took in a deep breath of air and tensed. The last animal I dodged on the bike caused me to go into a ditch and down. My back still hasn't completely recovered, but it was better than hitting a deer on a motorcycle. This was small. I would hold steady as possible and just take the impact rather than risk going down trying to dodge. About the time I made that decision I realized that while I was indeed about to hit the black shape coming across the road in front of me, it would be fine. It was the shadow of a buzzard flying over, not in front of me.

I let out a little laugh with the breath that I'd been holding. I felt a little silly. If I hadn't had just been looking at a dog threatening to run in front of me and caught the motion of the shadow less unexpectedly, I never would have been startled. I've run over more than one buzzard shadow riding the back roads of East Texas. But this one had surprised me, startled me, and if I had reacted wrongly, I might have lain the bike down trying to avoid hitting a shadow.

As I continued my ride, I realized that most of my fears are much like what had just happened. They jump out from the peripheral and startle and threaten, but they are usually no more substantial than a buzzard's shadow. The vast majority of the time, my fears are not the danger. The danger is in my reaction to what is making me afraid. Sometimes the threat is real, very real, but most of my fears have never had any more substance than than a shadow. I can imagine a hundred bad futures, and even if one were to come true, that would mean 99 did not. But if I react to the presence of them, they, the ones that would never be, are often more deadly and dangerous than the one, because when I react in and from fear, I tend to react badly.

The truth is that the dog was a much bigger threat than the bird. Yet it didn't scare me even a little. I saw it. I sped up a little and knew I would pass before it could cut in front of me. The bird, high over head and no threat at all, cast a shadow that nearly made me react quickly and in a way that would put me at risk.

Today, let us remember that might be and what if are but shadows without substance. If we don't react with our old instincts, they can not hurt us. And let us also remember that when the threat is real, God is our refuge, strength and comfort.



This site is free. If this blessed, helped and or informed you, the best thing you can do is pass it on via the social buttons below. And please subscribe or follow Unshackled Life Ministries on Facebook.

Unshackled Life Ministries is grateful for every person that reads the daily Unshackled Moments, the weekly Unshackled Echo and or listens to the Audio Messages. I want to thank those who have clicked "like" on something that blessed or ministered to them on social media, commented on the blog or replied to an email subscription. It is encouraging to know that God is using this ministry to help and bless others. Please remember that if God used something from this ministry to help, encourage or bless you, it could also bless someone else. Would you help get the devotions and sermons to more people by sharing this? Hitting the share button or forwarding this to a friend will help us reach more people with the good news of freedom and the encouragement to live an Unshackled Life. Thank you and God bless.

Benefits Of Prayer

We all face times of pressure. When it hits, we can turn to Daddy or turn to something else. Dalyn Woodard shares from Habakkuk the ways we can find life when we go into the presence of God about what we are going through. The message, "Benefits Of Prayer," is about 35 minutes long, and was recorded at Nacogdoches Christian Fellowship on Wednesday, May 23, 2018. It's our prayer that you are blessed and ministered to as you listen.

The first message in the series on the greatest little book on faith, Habakkuk, "Fear, Frustration, And Faith," can be found here, and the second message, "The Middle Of The Ride," can be found here. The third message, "Good God It's A Bad World," can be found here, and the fourth message, "While We Wait," can be found here.

This site is free. If this blessed, helped and or informed you, the best thing you can do is pass it on via the social buttons below. And please subscribe or follow Unshackled Life Ministries on Facebook.

Unshackled Life Ministries is grateful for every person that reads the daily Unshackled Moments and or listens to the messages. I want to thank those who have clicked "like" on something that blessed or ministered to them. It is encouraging to know that God is using this ministry to help and bless others. Please remember that if God used something from this ministry to help, encourage or bless you, it could also bless someone else. Would you help get the devotions to more people by sharing the Moments and messages that you read or listen to? Hitting the share button instead of or in addition to the like button will help us reach more people with the good news of freedom and the encouragement to live an Unshackled Life. Thank you and God bless.

If you would like to have notifications of new Unshackled Moments and messages sent to you via email, send an email to dalynwoodard@mail.com requesting to be added to the list. You can also follow Dalyn Woodard (@Dalynsmsings) on Twitter or Unshackled Life Ministries on Facebook.

Unshackled Moments ~ May 23, 2018 ~ Spiritual Diabetes

It is easy to let up on the spiritual program of action and rest on our laurels. We are headed for trouble if we do, for alcohol is a subtle foe. We are not cured of alcoholism. What we really have is a daily reprieve contingent on the maintenance of our spiritual condition. Every day is a day when we must carry the vision of God's will into all of our activities. "How can I best serve Thee - Thy will (not mine) be done." These are thoughts which must go with us constantly. We can exercise our will power along this line all we wish. It is the proper use of the will.

- The Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous

Selfishness - self-centeredness! That, we think, is the root of our troubles. Driven by a hundred forms of fear, self-delusion, self-seeking, and self-pity, we step on the toes of our fellows and they retaliate. Sometimes they hurt us, seemingly without provocation, but we invariably find that at some time in the past we have made decisions based on self which later placed us in a position to be hurt.

So our troubles, we think, are basically of our own making. They arise out of ourselves, and the alcoholic is an extreme example of self-will run riot, though he usually doesn't think so. Above everything, we alcoholics must be rid of this selfishness. We must, or it kills us! God makes that possible. And there often seems no way of entirely getting rid of self without His aid. Many of us had moral and philosophical convictions galore, but we could not live up to them even though we would have liked to. Neither could we reduce our self-centeredness much by wishing or trying on our own power. We had to have God's help.

- The Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous

Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?

- Matthew 16:24-26

Alcoholism is a symptom of a spiritual sickness. So is every other addiction and habitual sin, and non-habitual sin for that matter. Selfishness, I want what I want, what's best for me, what makes me feel happy, pleasure, safe, secure or at least keeps me from feeling frustrated, fearful, discontent and empty.  Self-centeredness, I am my own god, no one tells me what to do, I control my life, my will reigns because it's my life and I'll live it as I think best and want. This is the human condition. This is not limited to drunks or junkies or people who eat too much or spend too much or use sex the wrong way or.....

This is all of us. We are born with a spiritual disease. Our spiritual pancreas doesn't work, and we do not produce in ourselves what is necessary to perfectly love God and love others, to choose right over wrong every time in every situation, to live a life filled with love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. And just like with physical diabetes, of which more than a few of my relatives have had to deal with, there is no cure. Diabetics get a 24-hour reprieve, sometimes less, based upon the maintenance of proper insulin levels. They don't have to get it perfect, but the farther off they get, the worse off they are. It can lead to death.

So it is with us. All of us. The drunks and the deacons and the drunk deacons. Self is the problem. To be free and have a life worth living we must be rid of self. We must deny self, take up our cross and follow Jesus in service to and love for and relationship with our Heavenly Daddy. And that is first only possible by the power of the Spirit. And, like insulin, what we had last week, won't help. We must choose this day, each day to turn to Daddy, to follow Jesus and surrender to the Spirit or our self levels will begin to climb and we will get sick. But with daily injections of the Spirit of God in our lives, we can live the life we were always meant to live, a life of love, happy, joyous and free.



This site is free. If this blessed, helped and or informed you, the best thing you can do is pass it on via the social buttons below. And please subscribe or follow Unshackled Life Ministries on Facebook.

Unshackled Life Ministries is grateful for every person that reads the daily Unshackled Moments, the weekly Unshackled Echo and or listens to the Audio Messages. I want to thank those who have clicked "like" on something that blessed or ministered to them on social media, commented on the blog or replied to an email subscription. It is encouraging to know that God is using this ministry to help and bless others. Please remember that if God used something from this ministry to help, encourage or bless you, it could also bless someone else. Would you help get the devotions and sermons to more people by sharing this? Hitting the share button or forwarding this to a friend will help us reach more people with the good news of freedom and the encouragement to live an Unshackled Life. Thank you and God bless.

Unshackled Moments ~ May 22, 2018 ~ Celebrate The Little Things

Last week I celebrated eight years of recovery, and at the end of the week I plan to gather with family and friends to  honor that milestone. Obviously I don't have a problem with celebrating such big events, but this morning I remember with gratitude the moments when I celebrated an hour with more joy than I did for hitting eight years. In one sense making it that hour was such a little marker, such a small victory, but in other ways, that hour in the first few days of getting clean came with much more struggle and marked a much bigger change than staying clean and sober this past year.

That train of thought led me to another station. As some may know, I spend some of my time going into the local jail to visit one on one with and minister to those who are incarcerated. There are times when this causes some problems for me. From time to time the jailers are slow in responding to the visit being done, and I wait behind a locked door unable to leave as the sound of cell doors slamming shut sends me back to the time when I was one of the unfortunates who could not go home. A couple of weeks ago this happened. Waiting to get out took longer than the visit, and the inmates yelling and the cell doors slamming seemed louder than usual.

I didn't freak out. It didn't trigger my PTSD. And I celebrated. I thanked God for that little victory. I rode my motorcycle home full of joy without worry about whether or not this small victory meant I would always be victorious in this area.

I am reminded of the story of King Saul and victory found in 1 Samuel 14. The Israelites won a battle. It was a victory, albeit a small one, but the war was far from over. Instead of celebrating the victory, Saul declared that no soldier could eat or celebrate until the enemy had completely been destroyed. His son, Jonathan, didn't get the memo and ate with his men. Saul felt furious and nearly killed Jonathan over the incident, which could have cost him the war due to Jonathan and his men being a big part of his ability to fight well and because to kill Jonathan over this would have demoralized the rest of his force. Saul had gotten trapped in an all or nothing mentality that nearly cost him dearly.

Sometimes we are like Saul. We wait for total victory to celebrate. We wait for perfection, which never comes, and beat ourselves up over every mistake, misstep, setback or delay in progress. In the meantime we ignore the call to rejoice, to celebrate that God's grace was sufficient for us in that moment. We are never going to have total victory on this side of eternity. Yes, we will celebrate on the other side in such a way that it will make any and all celebrations on this side pale by comparison, but  we will and do have victories on this side. We should celebrate them.

Celebrate progress without stressing over whether or not there may be a setback later. Rejoice at the time that you respond to that rude person with grace and a smile. Celebrate the moment when you were able to place someone else's needs before yours without expecting anything in return. Do a happy dance over those moments when circumstances arise that would have made you lose it, become fearful or frustrated or fuss at God and despair of life in the past don't cause any of those things. Rejoice when triggers and trials turn you toward Daddy and take you closer to Him rather than are responded to with knee-jerk reactions of your old patterns.

The Spirit is changing and transforming us. The religious word is sanctifying us. He has promised that He will finish the work He has started. There will be total victory in every area some day. But until then, we can rejoice over every small victory, celebrate every instance where we respond to life more like Jesus and less like the old us. A grateful heart takes us deeper into relationship with God, and those little things add up. The truth is that we have much to celebrate, and the war is not over. The victory is assured, and every little advance toward the goal is a taste of the total victory to come. Let us celebrate the little things and use them to keep our eyes on Him instead of our circumstances.


This site is free. If this blessed, helped and or informed you, the best thing you can do is pass it on via the social buttons below. And please subscribe or follow Unshackled Life Ministries on Facebook.

Unshackled Life Ministries is grateful for every person that reads the daily Unshackled Moments, the weekly Unshackled Echo and or listens to the Audio Messages. I want to thank those who have clicked "like" on something that blessed or ministered to them on social media, commented on the blog or replied to an email subscription. It is encouraging to know that God is using this ministry to help and bless others. Please remember that if God used something from this ministry to help, encourage or bless you, it could also bless someone else. Would you help get the devotions and sermons to more people by sharing this? Hitting the share button or forwarding this to a friend will help us reach more people with the good news of freedom and the encouragement to live an Unshackled Life. Thank you and God bless.

Unshackled Moments ~ May 21, 2018 ~ Not Living For Today

Sometimes I feel overwhelmed and frustrated because it seems like there's too much to do and not nearly enough time to get it all done. Other times it's because while I understand that it is progress rather than perfection and one drop at a time will eventually fill a tub, I am not a patient person and one drop at a time doesn't feel like progress. Basically most of my frustrations boil down to I'm in a hurry and God isn't or I want relief and God wants relationship.

Despite knowing that every time that I have agreed with Daddy and put relationship as the priority I have also found relief, even if the situation doesn't change, there is a part of me that still wants the circumstances changed and now, thank you very much. I want the parting of the sea and the teleportation to the other side thank you very much. Yes, it's nice to have the assurance that Daddy is with us as we walk through the Valley of the Shadow, but I'd be fine if we strolled on the beach instead.

So much of what we're told in recovery is that we need to live in the now, and for the most part I agree. Living in the past is bondage and not life. Living in the future is fantasy and leads to worry or delusion.  But there are times when focusing only on the now is the bondage that keeps us in a state of stress and near panic. Now it hurts. Now it is scary. Now there's too much. Sometimes the now is the quota of bricks being increased and the straw to make them with being taken away after God promised deliverance. When now is the journey through the shadow and the pressure that threatens to crush, then it may be the time to remember that now is a vapor that fades. We live in the present, in the now, but always with the awareness of the eternal.  It is important to our survival and ability to withstand the pressure when the difficult times come to remember that this  now is not going to last. This suffering is but for a moment and is less than a blink when stacked up next to eternity.

I remember days in early recovery when the pain and the cravings were so rough I thought they would kill me. I thought the withdrawal would never end, unless I fed it. If we lose sight of the eternal, then, when the now is killing us, we find it difficult, if not impossible, not to do something, anything, to change the now, even if it means more trouble and pain later. There's a reason why I have a smile now cry later tattoo. If nothing matters more than this moment, than nothing matters more than being comfortable in this moment. But an awareness of the eternal creates a paradigm shift. Instead of being satisfied with a series of short-term reliefs and pleasures, even with poor to horrible long-term returns, we can endure short-term hardship and discomfort for long-term pleasure, peace and joy.

We can refuse the sirens call of instant gratification and instant, if momentary, relief when we can remember that the bill is higher than the reward. We can burn that check for $500 instead of cashing it when we read the fine print that tells us we'll have to pay back $1,267.32. We can instead of seeking the quick fix, seek Daddy, when we can remember and hold onto the promise that though the circumstance may not be fixed quickly or at all on this side of eternity, what we will have in relationship with Him is worth every moment of difficulty we might experience and then some. So yes, let us let go of the past and not live in the many possibilities of tomorrow. Let us remember that this is the day in which we are called to live and love. But let us also remember that we are not living for today. We are living for eternity with Love.


This site is free. If this blessed, helped and or informed you, the best thing you can do is pass it on via the social buttons below. And please subscribe or follow Unshackled Life Ministries on Facebook.

Unshackled Life Ministries is grateful for every person that reads the daily Unshackled Moments, the weekly Unshackled Echo and or listens to the Audio Messages. I want to thank those who have clicked "like" on something that blessed or ministered to them on social media, commented on the blog or replied to an email subscription. It is encouraging to know that God is using this ministry to help and bless others. Please remember that if God used something from this ministry to help, encourage or bless you, it could also bless someone else. Would you help get the devotions and sermons to more people by sharing this? Hitting the share button or forwarding this to a friend will help us reach more people with the good news of freedom and the encouragement to live an Unshackled Life. Thank you and God bless.

A New And Better Wine

We have looked for something to make life worth living, to empower us, to change the way we feel, and those things we look to as the answer have left us needy and broken. Dalyn Woodard shares on remembering that there is a way to have a life worth living and be all that we were meant to be. The same power that gave Jesus the ability to do it right, gives us the power to be and do right. The message, "A New And Better Wine," is about 9 minutes long and was recorded at Nacogdoches Christian Fellowship on Sunday, May 20, 2018. It's our prayer that you are blessed and ministered to as you listen. May God bless and keep you.

This site is free. If this blessed, helped and or informed you, the best thing you can do is pass it on via the social buttons below. And please subscribe or follow Unshackled Life Ministries on Facebook.

Unshackled Life Ministries is grateful for every person that reads the daily Unshackled Moments and or listens to the messages. I want to thank those who have clicked "like" on something that blessed or ministered to them. It is encouraging to know that God is using this ministry to help and bless others. Please remember that if God used something from this ministry to help, encourage or bless you, it could also bless someone else. Would you help get the devotions to more people by sharing the Moments and messages that you read or listen to? Hitting the share button instead of or in addition to the like button will help us reach more people with the good news of freedom and the encouragement to live an Unshackled Life. Thank you and God bless.

If you would like to have notifications of new Unshackled Moments and messages sent to you via email, send an email to dalynwoodard@mail.com requesting to be added to the list. You can also follow Dalyn Woodard (@Dalynsmsings) on Twitter or Unshackled Life Ministries on Facebook.

Unshackled Echo ~ May 19, 2018 ~ Living In The Promise Land

Today's Unshackled Echo was previously published on

March 7, 2015, as The Land Of Promise.

“‘For I will take you out of the nations; I will gather you from all the countries and bring you back into your own land. I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. and I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. Then you will live in the land I gave your ancestors; you will be my people, and I will be your God.

- Ezekiel 36:24-28

This is a message specifically for Israel from God through Ezekiel, and I would be extremely hesitant to take it out of that context and claim these verses as a promise to His New Testament church. That said, this message to the nation He chose to bring the Messiah through was a nation that belonged to God, was called by God and loved by God. The truths about God's love, desire for, and the treatment of those who belong to Him found in this prophecy transcend one prophecy and show God's methods and motives in relationship with His people.

So in this passage to an ancient people we find principles that hold true and apply to our lives today. If we will turn to God and surrender to His love, if we will simply accept that we are accepted and become His, He will draw us to Him out of the places of pain and misery. The land of brokenness will no longer have to be our home. He will bring us back to the place we were always meant to be, where we can live a life worth living and be the best us that we could ever be. We will come home as one released from prison.

We have come to the place where we know we can never be clean again. Those like me who spent any length of time in addiction to alcohol and drugs have more than likely been places, done things and seen more that we can't take enough showers to wash away. Even if you are not one of those whose areas of bondage never took them to the gutters and dungeons where some of us dwelt if you struggle with truly liking, much less loving, you. then there is an innate understanding of not being clean, of not being right, of not measuring up, of not being enough. God not only can make us clean, He desires to do so more than we desire to be and feel clean and well. He wants to wash away the stink of where we go without Him, remove the grime that we've been covered in for so long we thought our spiritual skin was naturally dark, when in truth we were created pure as fresh snow. God wants to restore us to that state we were created to be.  

Once we surrender to Him, He will set us free. It's ironic but true that the only way to find life is to die and the only way to be free is to give up our will. But God's love makes our surrender the start of a relationship, not forced slavery, and He will set us free from the bondage in our lives, our addictions and habits and selfishness and from the idols, those people, places, things and feelings that we chased because they attracted us at first, but that once we gave them the keys to our heart they moved in, took over and beat us to bits day by day.

Living locked up will make one hard. When we've spent time in bondage, we become callused, bitter, untrusting....our hearts become stone. We can't seem to make the transformation go the other direction. But God wants to heal and restore us because He  loves us and we are His. He  is the first heart transplant surgeon, and for thousands of years He's been taking out hearts of stone and replacing them with human hearts capable of love, care and compassion. We simply have to place our stony hearts in His care. He does all the rest.

And then the best part, the relationship, begins. God moves in with us. He sends His Spirit to live in the depths of who we are, where we begin and end. His Spirit is the influx of power within that makes it possible to live clean and well, to have a life that produces love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control, a life worth living rather than the chaotic, out of control, impulse driven and selfish life of bondage,  brokenness, lonely, painful and miserable existence that resulted from the reactions of our self will run riot.

We become His. We know love. We are moved to and live in the Promised Land. No, it's not in the Middle East. It's in relationship with our Creator and Daddy. We get to live in, and by the power of the Spirit, and with the joy and peace of love. We can hold on to the misery that comes with running our own life or we can have the restoration and freedom that comes from fully surrendering to love.

Abba, help me to be quick to return to You when I wander off and quick to remember that I am Yours and You are mine and that in Your love is the better place and way to live, in You is freedom and restoration. Thank You for cleansing me, for healing me, for bringing me home. Your love is the very definition of awesome. I love you. Thank You for Your love for me. Amen.

This site is free. If this blessed, helped and or informed you, the best thing you can do is pass it on via the social buttons below. And please subscribe or follow Unshackled Life Ministries on Facebook.

Unshackled Life Ministries is grateful for every person that reads the daily Unshackled Moments, the weekly Unshackled Echo and or listens to the Audio Messages. I want to thank those who have clicked "like" on something that blessed or ministered to them on social media, commented on the blog or replied to an email subscription. It is encouraging to know that God is using this ministry to help and bless others. Please remember that if God used something from this ministry to help, encourage or bless you, it could also bless someone else. Would you help get the devotions and sermons to more people by sharing this? Hitting the share button or forwarding this to a friend will help us reach more people with the good news of freedom and the encouragement to live an Unshackled Life. Thank you and God bless.

Unshackled Moments ~ May 18, 2018 ~ We Leak

I ran over a nail and developed a slow leak in my tire. Not recently. OK, this has happened more than once. Now, I have a tendency to deal with this type of situation by, well, by putting off what I know needs to be done. Let's be clear also, that when I say what needs to be done, I do not mean buy a new tire. I haven't bought a new tire in years.

I've bought a few good used tires, but nothing new. It's easier for me to pay thirty bucks every 6 months to a year than a hundred or more on something that may not last any longer, what with the nails and all. But I don't even mean buy a used tire. If I have the money I will patch a tire. If I don't, I'll plug the hole. And if I don't even have the funds for a plug or just put things off, I try to manage by parking where the nail is on the bottom of the tire and adding air every day.

Now that last plan of procrastination is not the wisest, and I don't recommend it. I've come to regret it more than once. The nail works its way out of the tire, and, suddenly, you're changing a tire on the side of the road somewhere. Or you walk out of the house needing to get somewhere only to realize you missed the perfect park and the air leaked out over night. Now you're late, and you have to deal with a flat. Even if it all works right, you have to be mindful and watch it. You have to put air in the tire every day, and think about it every time you park.

The leak never seals itself up. It doesn't get better and need less air as time goes by. Eventually, things are going to have to be fixed or replaced, because keeping air in the tire becomes less and less possible. And we're a lot like that old tire. Like a rushing mighty wind [the Spirit] came. When we become children of God, we are sealed by and filled with the Spirit. But we come to God broken and wounded. In other words, we leak.

Daddy desires relationship with us. He never fixes us where we won't go flat on this side of eternity. If He did we would likely forget that He filled us and fixed our leaks and drive on down the road like we don't need Him to hold us together. No, even the best and healthiest of us spiritually leak. We need to be careful and watch our air pressure. We need to make sure we add enough air before we go driving around our lives so we don't cause damage trying to ride on a flat tire. We need to keep an eye on it during the day and be careful of our position when we stop for the night.

My experience is that, like with a tire, the leak doesn't get better. I need as much regular time with God to keep from slipping back into self and going flat now than I did when I first came to recovery and discipleship. Today, let us not think that just because we haven't been flat for a while that we can just go without spending time with Daddy and making sure we are optimally filled with the Spirit. One day, we'll be through on this side of eternity, and when we cross to the other side, the work  of making us totally new and whole will be complete. Until then we leak. Take the time to stay pumped up, and don't risk going flat and getting stranded on the side of the road with our life.


This site is free. If this blessed, helped and or informed you, the best thing you can do is pass it on via the social buttons below. And please subscribe or follow Unshackled Life Ministries on Facebook.

Unshackled Life Ministries is grateful for every person that reads the daily Unshackled Moments, the weekly Unshackled Echo and or listens to the Audio Messages. I want to thank those who have clicked "like" on something that blessed or ministered to them on social media, commented on the blog or replied to an email subscription. It is encouraging to know that God is using this ministry to help and bless others. Please remember that if God used something from this ministry to help, encourage or bless you, it could also bless someone else. Would you help get the devotions and sermons to more people by sharing this? Hitting the share button or forwarding this to a friend will help us reach more people with the good news of freedom and the encouragement to live an Unshackled Life. Thank you and God bless.

While We Wait

We can trust that God is going to do what He promised, and He will establish His kingdom. Our suffering will come to an end. We will be restored, and the enemy has been defeated. But what do we do between now and then? Dalyn Woodard shares from Habakkuk that between the promise and the fulfillment is where life happens, what we are called to do during those dark times, and what we are not to do and trust in. The message, "While We Wait," is about 42 minutes long, and was recorded at Nacogdoches Christian Fellowship on Wednesday, May 16, 2018. It's our prayer that you are blessed and ministered to as you listen.

The first message in the series on the greatest little book on faith, Habakkuk, "Fear, Frustration, And Faith," can be found here, and the second message, "The Middle Of The Ride," can be found here, and the third message, "Good God It's A Bad World," can be found here.

This site is free. If this blessed, helped and or informed you, the best thing you can do is pass it on via the social buttons below. And please subscribe or follow Unshackled Life Ministries on Facebook.

Unshackled Life Ministries is grateful for every person that reads the daily Unshackled Moments and or listens to the messages. I want to thank those who have clicked "like" on something that blessed or ministered to them. It is encouraging to know that God is using this ministry to help and bless others. Please remember that if God used something from this ministry to help, encourage or bless you, it could also bless someone else. Would you help get the devotions to more people by sharing the Moments and messages that you read or listen to? Hitting the share button instead of or in addition to the like button will help us reach more people with the good news of freedom and the encouragement to live an Unshackled Life. Thank you and God bless.

If you would like to have notifications of new Unshackled Moments and messages sent to you via email, send an email to dalynwoodard@mail.com requesting to be added to the list. You can also follow Dalyn Woodard (@Dalynsmsings) on Twitter or Unshackled Life Ministries on Facebook.

Unshackled Moments ~ May 16, 2018 ~ Thank You, Judy

Tomorrow is the 8th anniversary of the day I got clean and sober (again). Again, because I had 15 months from late 2008 to early 2010. A short while after I relapsed I went running back to Recovery Road with my tail between my legs, 40 lbs. lighter and sure that I had to get clean or die (or worse, go back to prison). What that means is that today is the anniversary of the last day I got drunk and high. May 16, 2010, I had a moment of clarity through a chemical haze and knew the time had come to truly surrender and return from my resentment induced relapse.

I remember the shame I felt walking back into the rooms. I had gotten it. I had been freed from the obsession. I had helped others get sober. Then I had fallen back. One of the men I took through the steps was now encouraging me to come back in, start over and do it right. I did it. I took a deep breath, like I was about to jump in a cold lake, and walked into the room. Part of me expected those looks. You know, the I told you so or the you should have known better looks. Instead I was greeted with smiles. People actually felt glad to see me return before they had to go to another funeral of a friend who didn't make it back after "one more."

A dear friend walked up to me with a huge smile on her face, gave me a hug, looked me right in the eye and told me to remember what she always said, screw guilt. Conviction is a good thing. It lets us know when we need to repent and make an amends, when we need to return to God and ask forgiveness. But guilt and condemnation are only chains that keep us in bondage.The past is gone. Accept the grace to go on and leave the mistakes behind. I will always be grateful for those words of encouragement and for the way she reminded me that old things have passed away and we can be made new if we will only surrender to the Spirit.

This wonderful lady has been on my mind so much lately, because one week ago tomorrow, she went to be with the Lord. She had 19 1/12 years sober and a spirit that blessed all those who knew her. She wasn't perfect. She had her moments, even after all those years, when she slipped into self and stepped on toes. She admitted it quickly and did what she could to make it right. You would never have known how long she had by the way she talked in one sense. By that I mean she didn't brag. She didn't try to appear great and mighty in recovery. She was quick to point out that she, like all of us, are spiritual beings on a human journey and need God's help every day not to muck it up. She would get upset with someone and then remind herself that what they did wasn't any of her business. We all need to stay in our own hula hoop. And though she didn't brag about nearly two decades of recovery, her journey had made her wise, and she was good at delivering that wisdom with a wit that made it easy to take. I still remember her being able to tell me I was being stupid without making me feel stupid or angry. Instead she somehow did it in such a way that I knew she was right. I was being foolish, and I knew better.

Judy, I am grateful that you are beyond pain and suffering and finally completely and truly free. But oh the loss to the rest of us left down here. You were a big part of my recovery, and I still rely on the wisdom you imparted. I know I am not alone. Last week I heard the people who spoke of what you had done for them and the impact you had on their lives. You did it. You loved God and loved others, even when you might not like them much, and your legacy lives on. Thank you for all you did for me, for always having a smile for me when I came in the room, even when I was a mess. Thank you for making me laugh and making me think and for reminding me that I don't have to be perfect when I rely on the One who is.


This site is free. If this blessed, helped and or informed you, the best thing you can do is pass it on via the social buttons below. And please subscribe or follow Unshackled Life Ministries on Facebook.

Unshackled Life Ministries is grateful for every person that reads the daily Unshackled Moments, the weekly Unshackled Echo and or listens to the Audio Messages. I want to thank those who have clicked "like" on something that blessed or ministered to them on social media, commented on the blog or replied to an email subscription. It is encouraging to know that God is using this ministry to help and bless others. Please remember that if God used something from this ministry to help, encourage or bless you, it could also bless someone else. Would you help get the devotions and sermons to more people by sharing this? Hitting the share button or forwarding this to a friend will help us reach more people with the good news of freedom and the encouragement to live an Unshackled Life. Thank you and God bless.

Unshackled Moments ~ May 15, 2018 ~ The Impossible Task Of Self Forgiveness

I come across material about the need to forgive ourselves quite often. It seems most of us realize that it is important to our contentment and our freedom to be able stop self-condemning and forgive ourselves. What isn't so clear is how to go about that. I know from experience that forgiving ourselves is often much harder to do than even to forgive another person.

We know intrinsically that we don't have the power or the right to forgive ourselves of most of the things that bring guilt and shame and condemnation. If you owe me a hundred dollars, I can forgive that debt. It is in my power to do so, because you owe me. I can simply say that I release you from it and do without the money. If I determine to set aside a hundred dollars to buy something for myself and fail to reach the goal, then the person I didn't come through for is me. I can let that go as well. I can either try again or decide that I must not have wanted to buy whatever it was after all and let that go. But if I owe you a hundred dollars, I have no right or power to forgive that debt. For me to say I don't owe you anymore without paying is a lie. To say that I shouldn't have to pay you because you haven't paid others is an excuse that doesn't change the fact that I owe you. The plain truth is that when someone is owed justice for harms I have caused them, I have no right or power to erase that debt without making it right. And the next truth is that most of the harms I have done can not be made right by anything I do. What is the value of a broken promise, of betrayal, of an emotional, mental or even physical wound that scars and lasts for life without a healing touch from God?

I can forgive you.  You can forgive me. But neither of us can forgive ourselves. We can try, but the next time something similar happens or that person we owe comes to mind, we begin to beat ourselves up again, or we refuse reality and delude ourselves into thinking  things are OK when deep down we know that  they are not. But if I owe you a hundred dollars that I can't pay and my Dad gives you the money for me, then I no longer owe you, even though I didn't do the paying. I can't forgive the debt, but I can accept that the debt is forgiven.

I have found this is the key to forgiveness. Daddy and our brother paid the debt. If you owe me, I don't need to hold that against you and demand payment. I  can go to Daddy, and He can and will make it right for me. He can heal, restore and even make things new and better for me. So the home of my heart that you might have wrecked is now new and rebuilt. I have restitution and then some. Daddy took care of me. And if I wrecked your house and can't make it right, I can accept first that Daddy paid for my damage and that if you will go to Him, He will do what I can't do, repair, restore and make  your home new. Forgiveness is not injustice. Justice will be served for all of us. Someone will pay for every debt, every crime, every hurt done every person. The first question is will I be held accountable for debts I can never pay or will I accept Daddy's payment for what I have done? The next is will I release you from what you owe me and let Daddy make me more right than you ever could, or will I live a life eaten away by hurt, resentment and bitterness because I want you to suffer what you owe me?

Letting Daddy handle things is the easier softer way in both the case of what I owe and what is owed me. It does lead to freedom from condemnation, guilt and shame. If you, like me, struggle with forgiving yourself, I highly recommend that you stop trying to pay what you will never be able to pay. For me to make my life right would be far more than coming up with a hundred dollars. It would be like trying to come up with t he national debt on minimum wage while incurring new debts. Impossible. Not even in a hundred lifetimes. And you're as broke as I am, so my holding my breath waiting on you to be able to make what you owe me right will only make my lungs burn and finally kill me.

One last thought. I have mentioned several times what can't be repaid by you or  me. I am not talking about what I have done that can be made right. If I can make it right, I need to. I remember as a child getting angry with our land lord, so I dug up some of the hedge. I destroyed his property to get even. Only I didn't. The hedge wasn't part of our yard after all. It belonged to the little old lady who lived next door. I tore up her hedge. My Dad took me over to her house and stood by me while I apologized. Then, we planted new bushes in place of the ones I had dug up. After a while you couldn't tell that anything had ever been done.

If I owe you something I can make right, I need to do that. Not to earn Daddy's love or acceptance. Not to make Daddy willing to pay the stuff I can't pay. But because the interest on what I owe (the hurt I caused you) may make it more difficult for you to go to Daddy yourself. When I go to you, with Daddy by my side caring for you and helping me to make it right, then I make it possible for you to see that the hidden damage that I can't make right can be taken care of by my Daddy. But if I refuse to do what I can to make it right, then not only do I make it worse, but I give you cause not to trust my Daddy also.


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Unshackled Life Ministries is grateful for every person that reads the daily Unshackled Moments, the weekly Unshackled Echo and or listens to the Audio Messages. I want to thank those who have clicked "like" on something that blessed or ministered to them on social media, commented on the blog or replied to an email subscription. It is encouraging to know that God is using this ministry to help and bless others. Please remember that if God used something from this ministry to help, encourage or bless you, it could also bless someone else. Would you help get the devotions and sermons to more people by sharing this? Hitting the share button or forwarding this to a friend will help us reach more people with the good news of freedom and the encouragement to live an Unshackled Life. Thank you and God bless.

Unshackled Moments ~ May 14, 2018 ~ Don't Be Like Dalyn

There is a meme generator making it's way across Facebook, Be Like Bob. Perhaps you have seen one of these or even made a meme for yourself. My wife posted the one made from her profile, and curious, I clicked the link to try my luck. Dalyn is a drunk is basically what it said. My first thought was, I am so not posting this. Someone will think I relapsed a week before my sobriety anniversary!

But this meme generator is one of the few of these types of apps that has a try again button if you don't want or like the result. So, I tried again. And again.

And again. Four times it dared me to share Dalyn is a mess when it comes to alcohol; don't be like Dalyn. I had to laugh as the thought came to me that I was a week away from being clean and sober for eight years, and even Facebook doesn't seem to  forget that left to my own devices I'm a drunk and an addict. Then I began to feel grateful for this amusing reminder.

The children of Israel never went back to Egypt after being delivered, though they wanted to. They did, however, go back into captivity, and more than once. Each time because they had forgotten what God had done for them and whose they were. It easy to start thinking we're well. "I've been clean and sober for close to a decade. I've got this." I have seen so many people who had between 5 and 15 years sobriety go back out. I appreciate the reminder that I am free, but not because of anything I have done. God set me free. God keeps me free. If I return to running the show, go my own way, do my own thing, and try to by my own god again, I will also find myself in serious danger of returning to the man I was before. I certainly don't want that.

Yes, I am grateful for the reminder. I don't want to be like Dalyn. I pray that you don't want to be like Dalyn either. On my own, who I am is a mess, with or without relapse. Your issue may not be alcohol or drugs or any or my issues, but those of us who have been set free or only on reprieve until we get to the other side of life. Let us not begin to take back control and think we are well or that we should be proud of who we are. Let us instead draw near to Daddy, surrender to the transformative work of the Spirit and become like Jesus. We can trust who we are in Christ in a way that we can never trust ourselves. Love God. Love others. Walk in the power of the Spirit and remain free.


This site is free. If this blessed, helped and or informed you, the best thing you can do is pass it on via the social buttons below. And please subscribe or follow Unshackled Life Ministries on Facebook.

Unshackled Life Ministries is grateful for every person that reads the daily Unshackled Moments, the weekly Unshackled Echo and or listens to the Audio Messages. I want to thank those who have clicked "like" on something that blessed or ministered to them on social media, commented on the blog or replied to an email subscription. It is encouraging to know that God is using this ministry to help and bless others. Please remember that if God used something from this ministry to help, encourage or bless you, it could also bless someone else. Would you help get the devotions and sermons to more people by sharing this? Hitting the share button or forwarding this to a friend will help us reach more people with the good news of freedom and the encouragement to live an Unshackled Life. Thank you and God bless.

Even The Sparrow

Mothers are the first step in God's plan of love for us, and an expression of the Father's care. Pastor David Woodard shares on how honoring mothers is part of honoring the Father. The message, "Even The Sparrow," is about 3 minutes long and was recorded at Nacogdoches Christian Fellowship on Sunday, May 13, 2018. It's our prayer that you are blessed and ministered to as you listen. May God bless and keep you.

This site is free. If this blessed, helped and or informed you, the best thing you can do is pass it on via the social buttons below. And please subscribe or follow Unshackled Life Ministries on Facebook.

Unshackled Life Ministries is grateful for every person that reads the daily Unshackled Moments and or listens to the messages. I want to thank those who have clicked "like" on something that blessed or ministered to them. It is encouraging to know that God is using this ministry to help and bless others. Please remember that if God used something from this ministry to help, encourage or bless you, it could also bless someone else. Would you help get the devotions to more people by sharing the Moments and messages that you read or listen to? Hitting the share button instead of or in addition to the like button will help us reach more people with the good news of freedom and the encouragement to live an Unshackled Life. Thank you and God bless.

If you would like to have notifications of new Unshackled Moments and messages sent to you via email, send an email to dalynwoodard@mail.com requesting to be added to the list. You can also follow Dalyn Woodard (@Dalynsmsings) on Twitter or Unshackled Life Ministries on Facebook.

Unshackled Echo ~ May 12, 2018 ~ Motivation

Today's Unshackled Echo was previously published on

March 6, 2015, as Motivation Makes All The Difference.

"The negative idea of Unselfishness carries with it the suggestion not primarily of securing good things for others, but of going without them ourselves, as if our abstinence and not their happiness was the important point. I do not think this is the Christian virtue of Love. The New Testament has lots to say about self-denial, but not about self- denial as an end in itself. We are told to deny ourselves and to take up our crosses in order that we may follow Christ; and nearly every description of what we shall ultimately find if we do so contains an appeal to desire."

~from The Weight of Glory by C.S. Lewis

Motives matter. My motives matter to me and effect me. There are some things that I do that no one but God could ever guess my true motivation, and I may not even know it unless I am willing to look honestly at the depths of my heart and ask myself that all important question of why? Motives matter because walking with God is a condition of the heart, and He desires relationship and response to Him and His call out of love rather than grudging obedience out of fear. But motives also matter because the right motive makes service easier. 

I am a somewhat lazy man. I don't like increasing my work load for no reason; I am a firm believer in the adage work smarter not harder. When I helped my father haul hay for a living I learned things about lifting in such a way as to make the shape and weight of the hay help rather than hinder moving it (understanding physics is not a total waste after all) and learned from my father to think first and move second so you don't have to pick that bale of hay up one more time than is absolutely necessary.  There is some virtue to this type of thinking, but it can also lead to non-virtuous behavior. In my case, I never understood the point of making my bed. What a waste of time.  No one was going to see it anyway. If someone knew me well enough to get to see my bedroom, then should whether or not I make up my bed really matter? After all, I'm just going to mess it up when I lay back down, right? 

So I never made up my bed of my own volition. This caused me problems for a while in prison. I remember a period of nearly week where morning after morning I went toe to toe with an officer who came by and tried to make me make up my bed while I refused. The rules and not getting in trouble just weren't motivation enough to make me do it, and the more pressure came to bear the more a part of me wanted to get stiff necked and say "you can't make me." Let's face it, without some rebellion I never would've lived  a life that led to prison in the first place, right? After a while I made up the bed because it was easier than the fight, but I resented it. I hated doing it. I did it to escape consequences, and therefore whenever the opportunity came to blow it, off that's exactly what I did. I never made my bed unless I had to.

Fast forward to a couple of years after my release. I married Leah and learned something about her. I don't know why (I don't need to understand why), but it makes her happy for the bed to be made. I learned that little fact and began making the bed. Not because she nagged me to or asked me to or because anyone made me. It doesn't upset me or make me angry. I don't feel imposed upon. You see, I love her so much, and I love to see her smile. And I don't know why, but I do know that it makes her smile when I make the bed.

It's selfishness that makes me hate to make the bed. It's selfishness that makes me make the bed. Really, it is selfishness either way. I love that smile, and making the bed is such a little thing to exchange for such a great reward. Love makes it easy. Love makes it enjoyable to do something I once fought to the point of being sent to seg to avoid doing. The cure for selfishness is not unselfishness. C.S. Lewis is right. It's love.  Love is still selfish, but the fruit is wonderful rather than miserable. If walking with God didn't give me freedom and a life worth living, if relationship with God didn't have more and greater rewards of joy and peace than anything else I had tried I would keep looking for something else. But relationship with Him is worth living for. It is worth dying for. It is worth choosing what makes Him smile over what I prefer, the easier, more pleasurable to my old nature, choice. When the motive is love for God and love for others, we can sacrifice our own needs and desires easily, for something we need and desire even more. But when we're motivated by "have to" and doing without instead of doing for someone else, then the same act of self-denial becomes a painful chore that brings only bitterness and resentment.

This site is free. If this blessed, helped and or informed you, the best thing you can do is pass it on via the social buttons below. And please subscribe or follow Unshackled Life Ministries on Facebook.

Unshackled Life Ministries is grateful for every person that reads the daily Unshackled Moments, the weekly Unshackled Echo and or listens to the Audio Messages. I want to thank those who have clicked "like" on something that blessed or ministered to them on social media, commented on the blog or replied to an email subscription. It is encouraging to know that God is using this ministry to help and bless others. Please remember that if God used something from this ministry to help, encourage or bless you, it could also bless someone else. Would you help get the devotions and sermons to more people by sharing this? Hitting the share button or forwarding this to a friend will help us reach more people with the good news of freedom and the encouragement to live an Unshackled Life. Thank you and God bless.