Some sat in darkness, in utter darkness, prisoners suffering in iron chains… Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble, and He saved them from their distress. He brought them out of darkness, the utter darkness, and broke away their chains. Let them give thanks to the Lord for His unfailing love and His wonderful deeds for mankind, for He breaks down gates of bronze and cuts through bars of iron. — Psalm 107:10, Psalm 107:13-16


Addictions and habits that we just can’t seem to shake can feel like prisons where we are chained to the very thing we want freedom from. We may even hate the thing we are doing, much like Paul described in Romans 7:18-19.

Despite the fact that we may feel like we are in a prison with no way out, we have a promise from God that He can cut through the very bars of iron that seem so strong and powerful in our lives! This passage from Psalm 107 tells us that if we cry out to the Lord in our times of trouble, He will come and rescue us out of a place of distress simply because He loves us. This passage of Scripture also reminds us that we don’t need to get cleaned up before we go to God. We can be at the lowest point of our lives, at a place where we have tried hundreds of times to get free on our own and failed, and all we have to do is cry out to Him.

In His perfect timing, God Almighty will come in with His strength and break our every chain. He is able to open the door to any prison we find ourselves in and then free us to walk in the plans and purposes He has for us.

Lord, I ask You to free me from _________. I have tried and failed, because I relied on my own strength. I thank You that in You I can know freedom and the fullness of joy. Lord, I choose to follow You and walk the path You have for my life. Thank You, Jesus, for setting me free! Amen!

These three remain: faith, hope and love. — 1 Corinthians 13:13

Faith, hope, and love. According to the Bible these are three indispensable and eternally enduring commodities, ones we ultimately can’t live without.

Love, said Jesus, is the driving principle behind God’s greatest commands. We must love God first, with everything we’ve got. And we must love our neighbors as we love ourselves (Matthew 22:34-40). It’s no surprise that these are God’s central values: the Bible tells us that at His very core “God is love” (1 John 4:8, 1 John 4:16, emphasis mine).

Faith, biblically defined, is trust in God and in the payment He made for our sins when Jesus died on the cross. The apostle Paul said,

For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith. — Ephesians 2:8

Grace is a blessing we have not earned — in this case the gift of salvation that Jesus purchased for us — but faith is the means of receiving that gift.

And hope is the sense of expectancy and optimism that God wants to instill in all of us who love Him and have faith in Him. It’s an overriding confidence He gives, reminding us that, even in the midst of our greatest problems, God is still with us — and He is greater than any challenge we might face.

Hope is the inextinguishable flicker God ignites in our souls to keep us believing in the prevailing power of His light even when we are surrounded by utter darkness.

It’s the unswerving belief that better days are ahead, probably in this world and most certainly in the next. It’s the quiet resolve He hardwires into our spirit that clings to the seemingly impossible truth that “in all things God works for the good of those who love Him” and that, in the grand scheme of things, “we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us” (Romans 8:28, Romans 8:37).

It was the apostle Paul — that unsinkable carrier of divine hope — who proclaimed,
For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. — Romans 8:38–39

That, my friend, is a great reason for our hope, a truth that we need to let soak into our very being, because we live in a culture that seems bent on spreading, with evangelistic zeal, its relentless message of complete hopelessness.

Maybe that message has been getting the best of you. Perhaps your future feels uncertain, or a sense of guilt from your past weighs you down. Problems never seem far away.

In this world you will have trouble, Jesus warned. But take heart! I have overcome the world. — John 16:33

We must, with God’s help, learn to cling to that rare and wonderful thing called hope. Otherwise, we’re destined for despair.

I've tried all kinds of things to try to keep myself from talking about others when I shouldn’t. Sometimes my methods worked. Other times I just kept yacking. And when gossiping with others, I mistakenly felt secure in thinking that the person I was talking to would not tell the little morsels to the person being gossiped about. Boy, was I wrong! In fact, I can say with almost absolute certainty that if a person is willing to listen to gossip they are also willing to spread it. Or to betray your confidence. Or even to turn traitor and gossip about you!An old Irish proverb claims, “He who gossips with you will gossip about you.” It’s true.

I decided to try something else. When I was newly married, a little “gossip grid” was going around. Posting this convicting checklist near your phone was supposed to keep your tongue tied when it wanted to wag. It goes like this:

When considering whether to chatter about something, ask yourself first:

Is it kind? Is it true? Is it necessary?

So I scratched that little three-part golden rule of gossip out on a note card and prominently posted it in our tiny one-bedroom apartment where I was sure to see it daily. It worked for a little while. But then my mind engaged in a pretzel-bending round of mental gymnastics. Somehow I could justify that what I was saying was true. And it was necessary that I told it to the person on the other end of the phone. And being truthful is certainly kind, right? The little note card soon came down because it didn’t help me keep my big mouth shut.

It was then that I turned to the same place David turned, God’s Word. From this how-to-live-life manual we can unearth treasures that will help us to break the grip of gossip. Here are practices that have worked for me.

1. Study How the Bible Describes a Gossip

The Bible is full of phrases that describe a gossip and also the effects of their actions. Committing these verses to memory did much more to prevent me from gossiping than mental visualization or a three-part ditty. Here are some of my favorites, along with their less-than-flattering depictions of gossips.

A Gossip Betrays Confidences

A gossip betrays a confidence, but a trustworthy person keeps a secret. — Proverbs 11:13

Nobody likes a Benedict Arnold: a person who betrays someone. Betrayal paints a picture of going to an enemy with information that will wound your friend. But a trustworthy person is admired. By refusing to participate in gossip, I can be known as a loyal and trustworthy woman rather than a traitor.


People Avoid a Gossip

A gossip betrays a confidence so avoid anyone who talks too much. — Proverbs 20:19

Wow! People will avoid me if I am known as a gossip. And I’ve actually experienced this. There were certain people who just never seemed to want to be my close friend. In retrospect, I’ll bet it was because I gossiped, and all these people were good at holding their tongues.

I should also take this verse as a warning. I need to watch who I hang around. If I am prone to hang around someone who gossips, I am more likely to engage in gossip myself.


A Gossip Stirs Up Conflict

A perverse person stirs up conflict, and a gossip separates close friends. — Proverbs 16:28

Let’s face it. There are some people who just like to stir the pot. Some who thrive on drama. But these social shenanigans often cost us friendships. Do we want the pot stirring traced back to us? If relationships are damaged and feelings are wounded, do we want our words to be the cause? And just knowing that the Bible uses the word perverse to describe such a person should make us stop and think the next time we are tempted to participate in gossip.


A Gossip Is Wicked

"They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips." — Romans 1:29

When I happened on this portion of Scripture one day, it smacked me upside the head. Paul describes all sorts of awful, sinful behavior. Big stuff like murder, greed, malice, depravity, wickedness. These are sins we tend to rank high up on the evil scale. But tucked neatly away in this staccato string of serious sins is gossip. Wait! Back up the train. You mean my sharing a little juicy bit of gossip is right up there on the evil scale with killing someone?

We tend to rank sins, but that is not God’s way of thinking. Sin in the Bible is portrayed by using an old archer’s term of “missing the mark.” Anything other than dead center in the bull’s-eye is sin. So yes, someone who commits murder misses the mark by a country mile, but someone who gossips also misses the mark even if by just a short city block. Therefore, both are sin. The consequences of those sins vary in degree, but both are still considered sin in God’s eyes.

Whenever we sin, repentance is required. Repentance is simply agreeing with God about our wrong and then doing an about-face and walking in the other direction, committing the sin no more. We won’t be perfect. There will still be times that we give in to our sinful desires and choose the wrong path. However, the more we grow in our faith, the less frequent our sinning streaks should be.

My personal Bible study on gossips has helped me to keep my lips zipped more often. I didn’t want to be viewed as a turncoat or have others avoid me. And, although I loved being a pot stirrer through young adulthood, I soon discovered the more I stirred the pot the more likely the boiling hot liquid was to splatter and burn me too. But what helped me most was realizing that the Bible lumps gossip together with murder (Romans 1:29).

Murder slays the body. Gossip scorches the heart.

You’ve heard the old saying “Sticks and stones may break my bones but words can never hurt me”? Well, I beg to differ.

My words of gossip havve scorched other’s hearts. I know they have. At times, what I’ve said about others has gotten back to them, and they were crushed. I am someone who hates physical violence; I can’t even stand to see it portrayed on screens. I’d never dream of hurling a rock or stick, and I’d certainly never dream of committing murder!But I have wounded and killed with my words.

I regularly ask God to reveal to me if I owe someone an apology. It is a painful prayer, because He is always faithful to answer. And yes, I’ve had to go to a few people over the years and ask for their forgiveness. It’s humbling — and it’s healing.

I challenge you to pray the same prayer. Be warned — you might need to develop a taste for your own words since God may require you to go back and eat them. But trust me, once you do, there is no bitter aftertaste. Only blessed relief.



2. Keep Quiet

In addition to memorizing verses about gossip, there is another option that can help us avoid getting tangled and tripped by our own words about others. It is the choice to simply keep quiet.

Scripture states that there is a time to speak up and a time to remain silent (Ecclesiastes 3:7). Cultivating the habit of keeping quiet when others are gossiping is a little awkward and even painful. However, I have seen its fruit in my own life. I am much less likely to regret my words if I don’t start even one sentence down the road that might lead to gossip, not taking the bait when another person throws out an enticing line or two trying to reel me in and get me to gossip. And I have noticed that others tend not to gossip as much around me if they know they may be met with silence in response.

I remember the first time I was in a group of girls when this happened. It was my freshman year of college, and we were all sitting around my tiny, cinder-block dorm room when the topic of someone on campus came up. One by one, everyone chimed in, giving their two cents’ worth about this person. That is, everyone but my roommate. She sat silently on the bed with her legs crossed, staring out the window. Even when directly asked, “Don’t you think so too?” she said nothing. Finally, one of the girls asked her if she was listening. Her reply was classic.

“Oh, yes. I am listening all right. And I don’t think I have anything to say. We shouldn’t be talking like this behind her back.”

The silence that followed was deafening. But I learned a good lesson that day. My roommate was right. None of us would have wanted others to talk about us, so why were we so eager to jump in and do the talking? Yes, perhaps the most effective way to avoid gossip is to simply keep our lips zipped.

Friends, we can’t go wrong when we choose to obey Scripture. Even the toe-crushing, oh-so-hard-to-do parts.

Did any of the verses you read above prick your conscience as you read them? Could God be asking you to make a call, send a text, or craft a private message to someone to ask forgiveness?

Will you commit to not discussing what is happening in someone’s life that others might find newsworthy in a gossipy sort of way? If so, do it soon. You won’t be sorry.

If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. — 2 Corinthians 5:17

Rebirth can be a difficult concept to understand, but the lovely little butterfly offers a picture of what takes place when Christ comes into a human heart. The caterpillar’s metamorphosis provides a wonderful illustration of a believer’s spiritual transformation:

The caterpillar or larva is in the feeding phase. It eats the leaves in its world just as we feed on the ideas of the world around us.

At the chrysalis or pupa stage, the caterpillar appears lifeless. Jesus’ lifeless body was taken down off the cross and placed in a tomb. A believer’s chrysalis stage is when we die to sin.

The caterpillar emerges from its cocoon, transformed into a completely new creature. Similarly, we who recognize our sin, confess it, receive God’s forgiveness, and embrace Jesus Christ as our Savior and Lord are transformed into new life in Him.

The butterfly does not return to the caterpillar state; nor can it return to the pupa phase. When a butterfly emerges from its cocoon, it flies — something it couldn’t do before! The butterfly also drinks sweet nectar instead of gorging on leaves.

Are you a new creation in Christ still trying to gorge on leaves? If so, do you find them choking you? Are you a new creation in Christ still trying to crawl back inside the cocoon to live as you once lived? Even if you could go back in time, leaves would no longer nourish you, and the torn cocoon would no longer protect you. Why? Because God has transformed you into a new creation. Now you have the blessed privilege and opportunity to soar in His power and do His work on this planet.

Lord Jesus, at times I want to return to the cocoon, and at other times I want to gorge on the world’s ideas and values. Thank You for the beautiful reminder of the butterfly that never turns back to an earlier stage of life. Thank You, too, for this lovely symbol of both Your resurrection and my transformation.

"Heal me, Lord, and I will be healed; save me and I will be saved, for You are the one I praise."--- Jeremiah 17:14

For twenty years, my brother was absent from our family because of drug addiction. Countless times, we thought he was dead; according to drug abuse statistics, he should have been. However, my brother is living proof that God is in the restoration business.

It doesn't matter who you are, what you've done, or what has been done to you. God is willing and able to turn any tragedy into triumph.

After entering many treatment programs with hopes of success and end results of failure, my brother finally found the answer: Jesus. It wasn't until he met the Lord that he experienced lasting healing and life change.

Suddenly, all things became new. My brother didn't have the strength, willpower, or ability to free himself from bondage, but that changed when he surrendered his life to Christ. The same is true for us.

No matter what the bondage is--- drugs, lust, gluttony, pride, anger, or fear--- until we renounce our sickness and surrender to Christ, we will never experience freedom. On the other hand, when we are willing to give King Jesus our mess, He turns it into our message.

And that's exactly what happened to my brother. Not a day goes by that my brother doesn't look for opportunities to brag on God and share His message of hope.

REMEMBER
No matter what your bondage, surrendering it to Christ is the pathway to freedom.


Dear Lord, Your mercy astounds me. Give me opportunities to speak of Your hope so others may know Your goodness and salvation. In Jesus name, Amen.

"I am with you always, even to the end of the age." Matthew 28:20

When David Livingstone returned to his native Scotland after sixteen difficult years as a missionary and explorer in Africa, his body was emaciated by the ravages of some twenty-seven fevers that had coursed through his veins during the years of his service. His left arm hung useless at his side, the result of his being mangled by a lion.

Speaking to the students at Glasgow University, he said, "Shall I tell you what sustained me during the hardship and loneliness of my exile? It was Christ's promise, 'Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age."

That promise is ours as well.

No matter what trials we face, Christ never leaves us. He is with us every step of the way!

Keep that promise before you today--and always.

"Come to Me." Matthew 11:28

There are none of us so close to Christ but that we can't come nearer, and the secret of our daily Christian life is all wrapped up in that one word of invitation from Jesus:

"Come."

That nearness is what we are to make daily efforts after, and that nearness is one capable of increase. We know not how close to His heart we can lay our aching heads. We know not how near to His fullness we can bring our emptiness. We have never yet reached the point beyond which no closer union is possible.


Pray About It

Prayer is, in its most basic definition, a coming to God. Before words are spoken or thoughts organized, the fact that we have come unto Him has established prayer. Each time we enter prayer, there is this same coming to God.

"Come unto me" are the sweetest words of Christ to echo down through the centuries. Can you imagine a finer invitation? Today, as you pray, realize just Who it is that invites you to come. It was He who first loved us.