Behind Bars

I visited a young friend of mine in jail today. He is hurting. His younger brother died a weeks of weeks ago and he is trying desperately not only to make sense of his brothers passing, but now to make decisions in his own life that will get him back on the track that leads to his heavenly Father. 

The enemy wishes to shake us and sift all of us out of Jesus’ hand. Satan is very specific about what he targets in our lives. He unfortunately knows where we are the weakest and hones in on those weaknesses, hammering away in order to pry us loose from the hand of God. Once we have made the decision for Christ, no one can shake us away from God, except when we, ourselves, allow it.

When my young friend was arrested this time, (yes, there have been other times) the officer who came to arrest him for violation of parole, actually asked him what was going on with him. The officer encouraged my friend, saying that he was a good man that shouldn’t be experiencing these kinds of things in his life. 

As I listened to him pouring out his heart to me, I realized that if there were jail sentences meted out for every sin we commit, we would all be serving time behind bars.  I then realized that, without Jesus, we all are confined behind the bars of sin. My friend and I are not so different.  But the only true freedom that he and I can possess is the freedom Jesus offers as a free gift.