The Embracement of Chains

Driving down the road on my way home from Atlanta this weekend, I was thinking of all the places God had brought me from and the current place and season I feel like I’m in. And chains, yes chains, came to mind. Those heavy, rusty, iron shackles that weigh us down; that imprison us, and for most of the time, the things we place ourselves in through seasons of pain in our lives. The majority of the time as individuals we don’t even realize we’ve built chains and shackles around our hands; around our hearts, around our feet and sometimes, even around our minds.


Dictionary.com defines the word “Chains” as a series of objects connected one after the other; used for various purposes requiring a flexible tie with high tensile strength for things such as hauling, supporting or confining, or for decorative form. It also says it’s something that binds or restrains.


A series of objects linked together… our lives are really a series of seasons; a series of memories; a series of events linked together creating a chain, whether we link it together through the pains and sorrows, or the lessons we learn from those seasons is our individual choice and decision. Sometimes our memories hold us in bondage by putting shackles on us – to weigh us down, but only we choose to step into them. We tend to hide them. Making them look decorative as they were a part of our testimonies and cause us no pain – lies! We discover people will see the weight we care carrying and we will feel ashamed.


There’s this song that Mary Mary sings called, “Shackles” and I remember this song well because it was Pastor Jayme Montera’s favorite. And while I never really understood why it was his favorite song until I realized the chains and shackles that he had been imprisoned by in his life and the freedom he had been given, and I only discovered this knowledge when in my own life chains and shackles started to shatter. I started using the truth of God to set me free and not the deceptive lies of the past to hold me bound. There were days in which I embraced my links with an unhealthy love, instead of holding them with a shout of freedom and praise. I decorated my shackles thinking I may just get away without dealing with what had me bound. I was entirely wrong. If I didn’t have them, then who was I? They were a security system of me. They defined who I was for the longest time ever. I was defined by the pain and sorrows, and the hurts and failures in which links were left in my life.


And that song, if you will embrace its hidden truth will definitely teach you how to become free of the past that is weighing you down. So you can dance… so you can run… so you can raise your hands… to embrace a father who has always been there for you. The Bible states in Jeremiah that “He will never leave me nor forsake me.” No matter the weight of the chain… no matter the size of the shackle… no matter the amount of the links that build your imprisonment, all it takes is just one word from a King – God’s truth can and will destroy them – through His love for His children.


And driving down the road, it hit me. The moment I lost my desire to be embraced by chains, the false security they gave me and who they defined me to be… I was able to see who God had already created me to be and embrace the uniqueness I was designed with. He called me to be His daughter of freedom; He called me to be His vessel of purpose; He called me to be His warrior of love to free others from the pit of despair; “To lift them up from the miry pit.” And as I walk through this season of reflection, I praise God for the people who were able to teach me how to be free without limitations and chains. Because of the influences in my life, I am able to be a stronger, more passionate, faithful, and loving Child of God with a huge destiny set before her. One that I can embrace without pain or hurt, but ultimately because of my Savior who sent someone who had been in my place, and used them to rescue me.


And to the Point:


Don’t start embracing links of pain and hurt or of destruction that will bring you to walk in chains of heaviness in your life. We are called to “throw off the spirit of heaviness and pick up the garments of praise.” Bring God’s truth into your heart to know who you are so that you can embrace His grace and walk (or dance) without shackles on your feet, for the Proverbs instructs us to “Write them on the tablets of our heart.” Embrace God’s love for you and throw off the desire for the security and embracement of you chains. He hasn’t left you.