Trapped

George the cat somehow smuggled his way into our upstairs attic area.....and found himself trapped for the weekend. I guess he sneeked in when one of us were up there on Friday....but not to be seen. No harm done...the room was carpeted and air conditioned and he sleeps most of everyday....but boy did he let out some meowing alarms the minute she heard the back door open. No water ...no food...and no way out....and at the mercy of someone else to come and open the door for his release. He left hardly a mess....and must have been crazy that no one was around to let him out. Oh I felt horrible....that he had been stuck. But he was quite forgiving, assuredly relieved and purred quickly after he had been picked and loved.

We sometimes don't realize our entrapment until we have been stuck a while. Even when a door closes we find ourselves still intrigued and investigating new surroundings...but then it hits....and we do know we are trapped. And what next? We search intently and almost with panic but there is no escape route available. So we hover at the door that we came through hoping that someone will come to our rescue? We get ourselves entrapped in situations all the time....simple conversations that we want to flee from....unhealthy relationships that we don't know how to fix ....jobs that seem to squeeze the life out of us..bodies that have aged.....diseases that infilterated our wellness....debt that has accumulated....commitments that we wish we wouldn't have made...those are just a few of the external prisons but what about the internal ones....we are bound so many times by guilt and resentment and frustration and envy...and we want to be free of and not held into the camp of these thoughts and situations but sometimes they just seem to take over....and we become imprisoned by them. These are some daily and subtle reminders that we are so often confined by entrapment that we have gotten ourselves into...and in some cases have gotten onto us.

But we forget that there is a rescue team just outside our door....the Father, Son and Holy Spirit..And they are a mighty team of escape. They work quietly, methodically and faithfully for anyone who they hear calling for their help. They are guaranteed, bonded, experienced and wise oh so wise in their ways. You don't have to go anywhere to get to them...they come right to you wherever you are....and have keys to every locked door, an escape route from every entrapment, and provisions for every need.

But this team is not just about the escape...they are about helping us to build up strength and wisdom and faith to keep us from letting the grips of prison walls close in on us again. Whatever it is that we have allowed to smother our thinking, and bind our freedom....Jesus has an answer for. And if we ask....for help or guidance and sincerely believe that God is able in all of his glory to overcome our obstacles....then we have taken the first step to freedom.

Crazy as it is George the cat knew we would come....at some point...I know he is only a cat...but even cats have instincts based on what they know of routine. We are much smarter than a cat yet we so often times don't submit to the faithful instinct that God had formed within us that says,,,,Call on me I will answer....Jeremiah 33:3 says call me and I will answer you...but as I was looking up that verse I found so many other claims of God answers calls of his children..if you want some serious backup for God being there... here is a link: http://www.biblegateway.com/keyword/index.php?search=call%20%20answer&version1=31&searchtype=all&limit=none&wholewordsonly=no&startnumber=1...(you can always go to Biblegateway.com type in a word and it will give you a verse)

There is nothing too big for God....no entrapment that is too strong...no, not even the one that has just appeared in your mind...not even that one..
BUT the question is DO YOU BELIEVE JESUS IS ABLE....I have to ask myself that same question daily....and the answer is truly YES! YES He is...he has a perfect record of miraculous deeds.

2 Corinthians 1:17-19

17When I planned this, did I do it lightly? Or do I make my plans in a worldly manner so that in the same breath I say, "Yes, yes" and "No, no"? 18But as surely as God is faithful, our message to you is not "Yes" and "No." 19For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was preached among you by me and Silas[a] and Timothy, was not "Yes" and "No," but in him it has always been "Yes."
God loves us so much that he has made way for us to communicate with him directly through is Son. To talk to him from right where we are...right in the situation that we are in...we don't have to clean up first and dress first...and try to remember to say the "right" things...we are to come to him as we are...mussed up...fragile, frustrated, and entrapped.... and faithfully expect Him to come to our rescue....yes at that moment and yes for a lifetime. God wants to help us out of where we are but he also wants to bring us to a place of life contentment and peace and joy...the more we rely on His power, and His authority and try to stay with the bounds of His limits, not so he can be the big boss but so that life can go well with us...and we can be productive using the gifts and talents and personalities that we have been blessed with.

God has given us each a life of freedom through his Son...He has already rescued us from death that we deserve and He has already opened the door to His peace and joy and contentment...we just must faithfully and courageously walk through it....trusting his HOLY NAME ...and his glorious fame.

I, as I suppose many of you do, stand at the prison door....waiting for the rescue....but forgetting that I have already been rescued...I just have act upon what it is that I know...and the faith that us within me that gives me the power to walk in that peace....and that cinfidence that God can and does override the obstacles....MY obstacles...I must be patient but I must always remember that God is working....and he has not left me abandoned to work out my escape alone. He is there...right on the other side of my prison...and has set me free...I just have to accept His provision....and allow him to cuddle my thoughts and
remind me of the peace that I have when I rest in his arms of safety.

Dear Lord, I know as I write this that we all want to be freed of entrapment that surround us....but we hold onto the wrought iron bars and forget to look to our side of the door that has already been opened for our freedom...Help me to faithfully seek your provisions...and not be blinded by the finite abilities of man....and me. Let me live in the freedom that you have offered and not be bound by things and bounds of worldly gates. Amen