“Cast off all your chains—they have long since been broken—and walk ahead in Me.” (Inner Word)
What is holding us back from moving forward on the path of following the Lord? It often seems as though invisible chains still bind us. Perhaps they are things we have long since brought before God, yet they still linger and seek to hold us back. Perhaps they are merely erroneous thoughts and fears that weigh down our path.
The Apostle Paul says: “Forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” (Phil. 3:13b–14).
Our Father surely wants us to make use of the time given to us on earth and to reach out toward the goal of our lives. Let us accept the great gift of forgiveness! Once that has been done, we must look forward and not keep looking back, as if the Lord had not truly forgiven us after all.
It is not uncommon to become unduly preoccupied with oneself and one’s own feelings, which oppresses our lives in a grueling cycle of self‑reproach, accusations, and vague feelings of guilt, clouding and dulling our existence.
Instead, let the sun of God’s liberating love shine into our hearts. When God grants us liberation through His love, we should not voluntarily continue to carry the chains He has broken, but rather move forward gratefully in the freedom He has given us. That is what God wants from us! Otherwise, it might be that one day the Father will ask us: “But why did you continue on with chains that I had broken? Why did you bind yourself? Do you not trust Me and My love?”