December 9, 2009
Breaking Free of Invisible Prisons
I’m sure most of you have heard the story of how elephants are trained for the circus in various parts of the world. When a baby elephant is small, a rope or chain is tied around its leg next to a stake driven deep into the ground. The baby elephant, not being very strong, pulls and tugs but is unable to move the stake. As the elephant grows older and matures, its ability to pull the stake out of the ground is unquestioned; but because it has been trained to believe that it cannot break free from the stake it becomes a prisoner of that which is untrue.
In the past 25 years as a pastor, I’ve met countless people who are prisoners of invisible stakes. Like prison bars that surround their mind and emotions, they live with boundaries, guilt and anxieties that limit their experience of God… especially His love. There are two major invisible prisons that come to mind: the prisons of false guilt & legalism.
The Prison of False Guilt
As you study the Scriptures closely, you learn that God has equipped us with an amazing, internal tool called our conscience. The conscience is trained to tell us when something is wrong or when something is right. The only problem is that the conscience is not infallible. Although there are certainly innate truths built into our conscience (according to Romans 2), it can be incorrectly trained so that it tells us something is disturbingly wrong when in fact there is no problem at all.
Some Christians, although intellectually believe that God loves them, live with piles of condemnation every day. An overly strict conscience condemns them for everything they do. They constantly feel pangs of doubt and assign to themselves impure motives for any thought or action that they think might be anything less of God’s standard.
An overly strict conscience is often developed through our childhood experiences where overly strict parents or perfectionism communicated that we never quite measured up. Although unintentional, many sincere parents, in an effort to bring out the best in their child, bombard them with rules and correction at every turn – which leads to an overly strict conscience.
Jesus said that we would know the truth and the truth would set us free; but sadly a great majority of Christians live daily with a foreboding sense that God is down on them, they don’t measure up and that they’re not really loveable or acceptable. The result in most cases is one of two extremes: Either a driveness to prove and make oneself self-righteous in God’s sight (the Christian work-aholohic) or an outright rebellion against and a casting off of Biblical morality and righteousness. After years of frustration, this second extreme simply gives up and says, “I will never measure up. I’m just going to forget this whole God and trust stuff.”
The Prison of Legalism
The other most common prison is one that Jesus attacked vigorously. It’s the prison of legalism. Legalism is an effort to gain God’s favor or create a “righteous” out of one’s keeping of rules and self-effort. It was this self-righteousness the Pharisees exhibited that was so sharply criticized by our Lord.
Legalism takes the means and makes it the end. The particulars of the law, the rules to be kept, the moral guidelines – all that were given to us out of love and designed to be followed out of a spirit of relationship – are turned into “oughts” and “shoulds” that bombard one’s soul. The result is religiosity and self-righteousness. The letter kills (the Apostle Paul tells us), but the Spirit gives life.
For the next week, I’m excited to share with you a new series on the radio, Released: Breaking Free from Legalism & Guilt. Far from being theoretical, my own journey with legalism and my wife’s struggle with false guilt have allowed us to experience the pain and frustration, even as Christians, of living within the invisible prison. But thanks be to God who leads us in victory! (1 Corinthians 15:57).
It’s my prayer that you will experience the vast love of God in a fresh way today as you listen to this series. You can free listen online here.
Keep Pressin’ Ahead,
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Martin Brozovich on December 9th, 2009
MAN this is RIGHT on TIME!
I look forward to yet another life transforming teaching from your ministry !
God Bless you!