Setting Free the Captive Heart

Captivity is defined as the state or period of being imprisoned, confined, or enslaved.  Our hearts are said to been held captive until Christ came to set the captives free, to bind up the brokenhearted, and to proclaim the favor of God (favor can also be defined as grace) Isaiah 58.  I am trying to gain a better understanding of what a calling is, and what my calling might be; this is a topic of great importance to me right now as I delve into a new chapter of life with the hope of aligning myself with God's best intent for my story.  I think a calling is like an invitation, it can be rejected, ignored, missed, or accepted and I believe our calling is both general and specific.

It's general in the sense that we are called to love well, act with compassion, mercy and grace, and to exude the character of God in all that we do.  It is a tall order and one that will not always be upheld perfectly, but that only points us to our unending need of Love Himself.  Without being connected to Love, how well can I love?  On a more specific note, our calling should be defined in light of Christ's calling, as we are always and completely defined in light of Him.  His sacrifice has forever defined us as forgiven, loved and welcomed into the family of God.  We are now able to exist in union with God and eventually in perfect union with Him.  As mentioned earlier, Christ's calling was to set the captives free, to bind up the brokenhearted, and to proclaim the favor of God.  I have been asking myself where my life, my calling fits under this umbrella and I am really drawn to setting the captives free.  I want my life to be about that.  I would die a very happy man if I could look back on my life and be convinced that as a result of knowing the Lord in a way that allowed me to express His heart to others, people who's hearts were being held captive now live free.

Our hearts are held captive by so many things.  We strive for the appearance of success, happiness, and meaning.  We are insecure about the way we look, unsure about what our lives should be about, and we spend much of our time distracting ourselves by being "so busy."  Our captivity stems from the brokenness that lies deep within all of us - from what went wrong in the garden.  We lost our innocence, our trust in our Maker, and we were left broken - merely a shell of what we were intended to be.  Regaining that glory, what we were intended to be, is possible through a relationship with God, but it does not come easily.  Nothing will be attacked with more vengeance, no schemes or devices will be left unturned and no opportunity for destruction will be spared.  To regain our glory is to break the power of deception - a power that cripples our ability to trust God and to live a life of faith. 

Our faith is undermined when we find ourselves unable to trust.  I want to be about helping people regain this glory.  Captivity is broken when we regain our glory and our glory is regained when we are redefined in light of the glory of Christ.  His glory is infused into us through His actions at the cross.  Read Romans 6:4-7

Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin; for he who has died is freed from sin.

  I want to help people understand that God loves them.  Don't gloss over that.  God loves us.  This is great news and even better when we consider His love has no strings, no contingencies, no gimmicks, no self-centered motives, and absolutely no half-heartedness.  I hope my life can be about spreading the truth about God's heart for His people in order that our lives might be altered, undone, transformed.  If you really believed you were loved, not because of anything you did or didn't do, not because of how much good you have done and not because you lived a good life, how would your life look?  What would you change?  What striving would cease?  What hopes would emerge from the depths of your soul?  Could it be true - is there a love so exacting and so personal?