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SETTING THE CAPTIVES FREE
The blond-haired girl pedaled her bicycle fiercely letting the hot August wind sweep over her face, enjoying the freedom of being a child in the summertime. She grinned and streaked on unaware of the forces of evil waiting to make their move to steal her innocence and commence the work to take her captive in an attempt to thwart God's plan for her life.
Who was that little girl? It was I. The claws of the enemy finally sunk deep and shredded my identity. It was in my middle childhood years that the struggle with self worth took root. Every morning I would awaken to spend the day fighting myself and my self-esteem. I was naïve about my identity in Christ and I certainly didn't know how to embrace the good that had been instilled by my Creator. Soon the enemy had me trapped within a cage of our own making; a cage with the bars of inadequacy, inferiority, isolation, rejection and failure. The cage manifested itself with food and weight.
My teenage years and the better part of my adult life were spent trapped within that cage content to dislike myself and to accept the enemy's lies instead of God's truths as my weight continued to balloon compounding my low self esteem. Until one day, God, who always comes seeking us, said, "Enough, Shelley, enough my child. It is time to come out of that cage and embrace the person I created you to be." So began my journey to step out from behind those bars and live my life abundantly. The development of an intimate relationship with Jesus Christ evolved into a miraculous transformation. Three years later and ninety pounds lighter, I am free of the cage with a fiery determination to never go back, with a passion burning inside to travel everywhere God will allow me and help set others free, individuals who view life from inside their own cages with bars set in place by the enemy.
Isaiah 61:1-2 says, "The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners."
I wish I could cut open my heart and give you a glimpse of my zealous mission to set the captives free. God has anointed me to proclaim freedom for those captives and to help release prisoners from the darkness. When you have walked a tough and hazardous road, you desire to warn others of the trappings and offer hope by sharing what lies at the end of the journey. God has done an amazing work in my life. Psalm 142:7 states "Set me free from my prison that I may praise your name. Then the righteous shall gather about me because of your goodness to me."
I shout His praises. I am a cage destroyer and freedom fighter for God.
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