Released: Five Minute Friday

Today the writing prompt for Five Minute Friday, hosted by Lisa-Jo Baker, is RELEASE.  Her own post is an excellent one, especially if you are a writer/blogger who wonders if anyone reads your story.  I recommend checking it out.

You know how Five Minute Friday works.  We write for five minutes, then publish--without spending another half-hour (or more!) editing, revising, making it perfect.  We just write from the heart and share it with friends.

The word is RELEASE.  GO.

Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. (2 Corinthians 3:17)

Before I knew Jesus as my personal Lord and Savior, I was bound.  Bound as tightly as any prisoner.  Every one of my sins was wrapped around my hands and feet, and the combination was too strong to break.  I couldn't do it.  I was a slave to my sin.

Then along came Jesus.  I learned that He had died to pay the price for my sins.  I learned that I could be free from that bondage.  I could walk in freedom, not hobble in shackles.

It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery. (Galatians 5:1).

He is the only one who could release me from that bondage, because He is the only one who lived a sinless life.  He was willing to pour out His own life to save mine.  Pretty awesome, right?  (I try not to overuse that word, but we're talking about God and His sacrifice!  I think "awesome" is a fitting word.)

Because I am free, I know that the Lord has forgiven every wrong thing I did in my former life, and I know He forgives what what I do wrong now.  That doesn't mean that my sin won't have consequences; it usually does.  But He has recreated me, and that old person has been replaced with a new one.  Thank God for that!

This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun! (2 Corinthians 5:17)

STOP

Okay, I'll confess that I added the references and links after the five minutes ended.  For more Five Minute Friday, click a link at the top or bottom of this post.  If you're not a blogger, you can even write your five-minute entry as a comment on Lisa-Jo's post.