Free as a Bird

 

When I drove into my carport the other day, I found what appeared to be a flicker bird “trapped”. She flapped and beat against the windows and the chimney and the walls. Around and around she flew exhausting herself, then lighting on a window sill or the brick chimney to rest. I went in to get a broom hoping the flicker bird would light on it and I could carry her out to the open air. It worked for humming birds.

It didn’t work for flickers. She flapped and beat even harder and opened her beak to breathe as I reached the broom out for her to land. She headed for the chimney as I raised it to block her way, again hoping she might yet land on it. After a few more blocks she flew lower to escape the broom. This time she found the one opening to fly to freedom. She headed into the wide open space of the neighbors’ yard, then made a hard turn to the huge magnolia tree. I turned to take the broom inside.

We have all found ourselves trapped by the sin of bad choices. We run around crazy, beating ourselves up, doing all we know to do to save ourselves, unwilling to take the one way of salvation Jesus offers us. It’s not until we reach that point of knowing we have nowhere else to go that we go in His direction.

If you have not yet repented of your sins and allowed Jesus to do the saving, today can be the day you are set free. Jesus says, “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh to the Father, but by me. (John 14:6KJV)

The Urgency of Prayers

Surely the wrath of man shall praise thee: the remainder of wrath shalt thou restrain.

Psalms 76:10

I recently read Kayla Mueller’s letter in the Huffington Post. She told her family how much she missed them and how she thought of what they would do when she got home, but she also let them know how much she was depending on God in her situation. She wrote,

“I remember mom always telling me that all in all in the end the only one you really have is God. I have come to a place in experience where, in every sense of the word, I have surrendered myself, to our creator b/c literally there is no one else…. + by God + your prayers I have felt tenderly cradled in freefall. I have been shown in darkness, light + have learned that even in prison, one can be free. I am grateful.”

Wow! She did not blame God for her situation. She was grateful to have Him to depend on. Through her death, many are learning to turn to God. He is receiving praise because of man’s wrath. He is restraining even worse tragedies.

Remember in Matthew 26 when Jesus went to pray in the garden, He asked His disciples to watch and pray. Jesus wanted things to be different. He dreaded going to the cross, but He was willing because that was what it was going to take to save us. His disciples didn’t see the urgency of the situation though He had told them many times He would die and be resurrected. He wanted them to pray for strength for Him and that just maybe God the Father would see another way (let this cup pass from me Matthew 26:39). But Jesus, willingly went to the cross for me.

Father, help me to see the urgency of prayer for fellow Christians, persecuted and imprisoned. Prayers for strength as well as for deliverance. Father, help me be willing to suffer to bring You glory through the salvation of those who will see or hear and believe, for You, Lord Jesus, are THE way, THE truth and THE life. No one comes to the Father but by You.  Father, help me to be willing to live in such a way that others may believe in the name of Jesus. For it is in His name I pray, Amen.