Breaking the Chains

I was listening a live version of "Break Every Chain" by United Pursuit Band, and I was just moved by the presence of God in this song. But what blew me away at the end was this short prayer right at the end of the song. I decided to transcribe it because I thought it was just an incredible prayer.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mohyR5xowFw

"Lord... I just praise you tonight because, Father, it's... it's like a yes or no. Whether that we can see our lives, whether we can see a freedom, Lord. A lightness, a brightness. And Lord, for any here that just don't recognise that there is light, and there is dark. And there is pain and there is suffering, there is depression and there is fear and there is... hopelessness, but there is goodness, there is truth, and there is life and there is joy: abundant and free. God, help us see that's you, that the light is you... that you're interested... you're interested in breaking us free... that you're interested in seeing your light come, right here and right now. That's what you're about Jesus, and help us be about the same thing. Help us be about the same thing. We wanna rise up with you God, we wanna be about the things you're about. We wanna be about life."

There were many things that challenged me in this prayer. The first big thing being whether I myself can see freedom in my life. What is freedom? Freedom in Christ used to always seem like a big paradox to me, as when I was younger, I believed we were never really free with so many rules to follow. I was wrong. Freedom in Christ, means we are free from that guilt and condemnation, that sometimes we may feel when we sin. I'm not saying that its okay to not care whether you sin or not, rather to let it go completely to God so He can restore you to your identity in Christ. When Jesus died, He took all of our sin, and covered us with grace.

The second thing that challenged me was the contrast of light and dark. So often we can wind up thinking about all the bad things in life like pain, suffering, depression, fear and hopelessness. I know I've experienced many of these things within my life, and I ended up in a cycle focusing on negative without any positive. I can tell you now, that isn't a healthy place to be, regardless whether you have faith or not. Fortunately, I had a few good friends help me pull through, and they helped by reminding about the goodness in life. And if you're in that vicious cycle now, send me a message and I'll be open to chat and to pray for you, because I know there is so much good out there.

The last thing got me is that God is interested in us. Just WOW. It blows my mind every time I think about it. God, who created EVERYTHING, is interested in me. And it's the same for you too. Whether you want to believe it or not, God is interested in you and how you feel! That's just incredible, right?

I want to end with Will Reagan's final line. "We wanna be about life." I want to be about that freedom, that joy, and about that goodness, and to spread it everywhere. What do you want to be about?