Do you feel trapped? Does fear and anxiety steal your peace? Are your thoughts always negative? Do you always expect bad things to happen? If the answer is yes to these questions, you are not alone. Yes means that you have had encounters with life. No matter how old you are, you have experienced situations in life that were hard and even unbearable at times. These situations altered the way you view life. Maybe you experienced something that has your mind racing and you keep replaying the events that occurred. You may wake up with the negative thoughts, continue to dwell on them throughout your day, and then they consume your mind right before you go to bed. You may think to yourself “these thoughts cannot last forever”.
Have you done something wrong and it left you feeling guilty, ashamed, and embarrassed? These negative feelings continue to eat at your mind, heart, and spirit. These feelings are keeping you in bondage. You may think to yourself “I just want peace”. Or maybe you live a life where no matter what you do you cannot seem to catch a break. Every time you think something good is about to come your way something bad always happens. After years of dealing with this, you give up on your hopes and settle for the “I know something bad is about to happen” mentality. God did not call us to live a life of bondage. He wants us to experience freedom, joy, and peace. What you think becomes your reality. If you think positive thoughts then positive things will manifest in your life. If you think negative thoughts then negative things will manifest in your life.
Do you want to be free or to remain in bondage? You have the power within you to surrender all. The freedom that God wants us to feel is similar to riding a roller coaster. Have you ever experienced riding a roller coaster? Or do you remember the commercials from Six Flags Great Adventures? The commercials would show people on the latest roller coaster ride screaming with their eyes closed. Their eyes may have been closed because they are scared, their mind is racing with thoughts of the unknown, and the twists and the turns of the ride are causing fear and anxiety. Just when they reach the peak before the drop, they open their eyes and lift their arms in the air. At that precise moment, they chose to let go of everything that was keeping them from enjoying the ride. The people are now smiling at the fact that they are free from what they were thinking moments ago before the drop. That is the freedom that God wants us to feel.
I encourage you to open your eyes and lift your hands to surrender the negative thoughts, fear, anxiety, and the feeling of being trapped. When you lift your hands, it means that you are surrendering everything to God. You are trusting that He is going to work everything out for you. You have the authority and power to break the chains of bondage and lift your hands to be free from what has been holding you back.
Amen!