Entrapped

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"It is for freedom that Christ has set us free.
 Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery." --Galatians 5:1

Earlier today, I woke up from a very interesting dream which involved a friend of mine from middle school (a big shout out to SJS, you know who you are!).  Now, this is a friend whom I have not seen in over a decade, and I was finally able to visit with her at length and meet her husband.  However, like all dreams, while this was my friend, we were not in a place either of us truly lived and her husband was not at all like her real husband (whom I am eager to meet one day!).  No, unfortunately, she had married a very harsh, yet wealthy man, who had seemed nice and loving prior to their marriage, but had turned into a very controlling and formidable man.

Now unlike many of my dreams, this one seemed quite lengthy and was unusually vivid.  I can recall walking through my friend's home, trying to find her so we could visit.  With each turn of the winding hallway, I would find more beautifully appointed bedrooms, antique furniture, sitting rooms, studies, artwork, and more, but all were empty and obviously unused.  Finally, I met up with my friend who was getting the outdoors decorated for a party (okay, and like most dreams, here is where it got weird--her "backyard" seemed more like a swimming pool, so for most of our visit we were chest high in pool water, tying balloons and such to poles!).  She looked exactly like herself and yet sad and afraid, too.  We spoke about her life and mostly about her limitations, being married to her husband.  For example, he had wiped her iPod clean and only allowed her to listen to six or seven "approved" songs.  She also could not leave her home and spend time with me, or any of her family or friends.

Eventually in my dream, I met up with her husband and had an interaction with him, apart from my friend.  I remember he was very gruff and rude to me (not sure what he specifically said) and I recall angrily pointing my finger into his face and stating things like "I am a woman!  I am an American!," insisting that he had no right to treat me in that way.

Well, when I woke up and transitioned back to reality, my friend was very much on my heart.  However, I slowly realized with a smile that she was married to a seemingly nice and godly man and has two adorable blonde sons.  I settled back into my pillows and was enveloped by the comfortable realization that it was just a dream.

But this dream has not proven to be easy to dismiss!  In fact, the more I think upon it, the more I realize that many of us, if not most of us live like this each day!  You see, those of us who do not know Jesus personally and have never been rescued from our sin live like this each day--trapped and hopeless in sin.  It is only when we truly repent and believe in Jesus by faith that we can be freed from the devil's tyranny and be saved.  However, I want to focus on those of us who ARE born-again Christ followers, and yet we live within these confines as well!  You see, so many of us, TOO many of us live trapped in this place of over-abundance and wealth, trading our freedom in Christ for entrapment by the world.  We so easily hand over the authority of our lives to the evil one, ignoring the reading of God's Word and neglecting prayer.  We do not know who we are as children of God and all the riches we have in Him, and we live trapped in old habits and sinful patterns of thought, word, and deed.  And so, while we could all stand up and, being armed with God's truth, confront our evil taskmaster, pointing in his face and telling him he has NO authority to steal our joy, limit our freedoms, and minimize the riches we have in Christ...so often we choose not to.  Perhaps it is ignorance or laziness and the like, but I would submit to you that too often it is indwelling sin in our hearts.  Too many of us chose not to forsake the wealth, the comfort, or the material distractions of this world to confront our tyrant and remind him that he has NO authority over our lives!  And sadly, by not doing this, we trade our freedom, our joy, our liberties, and our very lives just to have the "wealthy," albeit lonely, lifestyle.

I'll close with this pointed quote from Paul David Tripp about this issue of identity and entrapment.

"Many Christians do not have a gospel perspective on who they are.  This lack of gospel identity shows up in two ways. First, many Christians underestimate the presence and power of indwelling sin. They don’t see how easily entrapped they are in this world full of snares (see Gal. 6:1). They don’t grasp the comprehensive nature of the war that is always raging within the heart of every believer (see Rom 7). They’re not aware of how prone they are to run after God replacements. They fail to see that their greatest problem exists within them, not outside them. Many believers also fail to see the other side of their gospel identity: their identity in Christ. Christ not only gives me forgiveness and a new future, but a whole new identity as well! I am now a child of God, with all the rights and privileges that this title bestows.  This is important because each of us lives out of some sense of identity, and our gospel identity amnesia will always lead to some form of identity replacement. That is, if who I am in Christ does not shape the way I think about myself and the things I face, then I will live out some other identity." 
(quoted from How People Change)

Friends, let this not describe us!  Let us get on our knees and ask the Lord to reveal to us the ways in which we are not understanding, believing or trusting what He says about our identity as a child of God today!  Let us pray for boldness to confront the enemy, point a finger in his face, and call him out for his insidious lies.  Unlike my friend in my dream, may we, by God's grace, walk from entrapment into freedom--the true and joyous freedom that is ours in Christ Jesus!