Good morning, friends.
Our verse for today comes from Acts 5:19, “But at night an angel of the Lord opened the prison doors and brought them out.”
A couple days ago, on Monday the 23rd, summer officially ended and autumn began. That day is called the autumnal equinox, when night and day are essentially equal in length. If you could view earth from space, you would see it would not be tilted at all to one side or the other, but the poles would be directly at north and south. Throughout the fall, as our hemisphere gradually leans away from the sun, our days will get shorter and our nights longer until the winter solstice on December 21st, when daylight is its briefest of any day of the year. This shrinking of daylight hours is of particular annoyance to many, especially those who both depart for work and return home in darkness. There used to be opinions that shorter days and less sunlight had adverse effects on our psyches, but scientists are now generally unconvinced of that direct connection. What does remain true, though, is the increased rate of bad things happening after the sun goes down. At least, bad things that involve violence or vice. Bad things that involve a police report and arrests. For the others of us, the time of day or night may have little to do with the trappings that ensnare us, the prisons we find ourselves in.
Unfortunately, we do tend to consider the late-night sinful ways of the rowdy as being more egregious than our daytime moments of weakness or common bouts of raw emotion. But simply because your habit is not considered scandalous and is a behavior or habit shared by many does not make it any less of a prison that you need deliverance from. Scripture teaches us that the closer we draw to Jesus and the more we have our hearts attuned to Him, the more aware we become of our sin and the more we want to be free of it. But just asking God to help you not to do something anymore might not get it done if you haven’t faced your heart’s passions head on and been honest about your pride, selfishness, bitterness, and so on. Our Savior doesn’t want better behavior in prison, He wants a full release and a life of freedom and liberty. That glorious existence comes from emptying yourself of everything and starting anew, like the prisoner who walks out with nothing but a second chance.
As we seek Him today, recognize the bars that are holding you captive and plea to God to give you freedom.
Have a wonderful rest of the week, and I will be with you again on Monday.
#4 Rich Holt
Dad of Ripken, Koy, TrishaJean, Samantha, Kakie Holiday and Raleigh
Happy is the man who has his quiver full of them.
