Sunday morning found me sitting in church (well, standing, praising, and even jumping). We have been blessed to experience refreshing at an amazing church filled with SO much love. Matt and I laughed as we drove there Sunday morning that we needed all the coffee and SweetTarts (a breakfast of champions) we could get to keep up with just the praise & worship part of the service. =) We LOVE it!
As the music began I could just tell that God had a special blessing for us this day. Eventually, the lyrics to "Break Every Chain" came up on the screen as the pastor sang it. He pauses at some point and says a few words. He asks every one who has ever had an addiction and had those chains broken by God to raise both hands as high as you could; be it drugs, alcohol, pornography, etc. I watched in amazement as hands flew up without hesitation and the congregation applauded. The song continued and those who raised their hands praised as they remember where their God had brought them from.
And I thought of me, the girl who has spent her whole life in church and who has never had a testimony of God pulling me out of a life of drugs, alcohol, etc. It's something I often get beat up by the enemy for. It seems silly, I know. But it used to be that I would feel like no one could ever be touched by my testimony... raised in church, came to God at 9 years old, and in ministry together with my husband since we were 17 years old. (I have since learned God has a purpose for my testimony being like it is and He has used it.) But here was Satan telling me AGAIN that my testimony was "wimpy". I was SO SICK of being attacked over that. No more. And I stood there thinking about what scripture I would throw in his face to shut him up.
When all of a sudden God reminded me of my dad. Why my dad? Because my dad was addicted to drugs by the time he was 18. He drank a lot. He was lost without God. Till one day, this man witnessed to my dad at work. My dad went home and later that night accepted God into His life and he never touched alcohol or drugs again.
I had to raise both my hands in the air as high as I could and thank God for sparing me. Tears streamed down my face as I realized He kept me from that life. I very well could have been born with a drug addict father or not even be born at all if God had not broken every chain in my dad's life.
Well, those five minutes or so that I thought of my dad and what God kept me from has totally squashed any thought that my testimony wasn't amazing. It is. See, my testimony couldn't be what it is without that moment that God broke all the chains for my dad. I was born with a father addicted to God instead of drugs and now I am addicted to God!
If you are dealing with chains that are holding you down, tearing your life apart, or choking you, you can be free! God can break every chain you have. You don't have to live with the pain. He is there with these great, big, giant, muscular arms, ready to tear those chains off of your life.
"Come to me, all of you who are weary and loaded down with burdens, and I will give you rest." - Matthew 11:28
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