Prison Break: Deliverance
Sunday
Romans 6:23 23For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
It is hard to believe that anyone would choose to live in a prison. It is even stranger to think that being in prison can be so comfortable that it begins to feel safe.
One of my favorite movies is Shawshank Redemption. There is a man in the movie by the name of Brooks who after a lifetime of prison living and loosing any hope of parole is set free. He has spent all of his life making his prison home. The process of being free actually fills him with so much fear that he commits suicide.
I think that often times I want the process of deliverance to be easy, comfortable. I want the change from death to life to be dramatic and instantaneous and as painless as possible. Truth is, it is easier to make myself at home in the comfort of my prison. It is easier to live complacent than it is to live in freedom.
Freedom requires a response from me. In the movie we later see another man, Red who is given the same opportunity after 40 years of living in prison. He goes out with the same doubts and fears. Somewhere in the midst of the changes Red moves. "Get busy living or get busy dying." Red chose life.
Today and everyday we are given an opportunity to live freely in the gift of grace that has been given us. But that deliverance requires us to move and to know that it is a process. God's process of perfection.
2 Corinthians 1:10-11 He has delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us. On him we have set our hope that he will continue to deliver us, as you help us by your prayers. Then many will give thanks on our behalf for the gracious favor granted us in answer to the prayers of many.
