Acts 25:1-12 | Bondage to BitternessSample

Bondage to Freedom

Acts 25:12 sums up this week's devotional.

“After Festus had conferred with his council, he declared: ‘You have appealed to Caesar. To Caesar you will go!’” (NIV).

It must have come as a shock to those Jewish religious leaders who had unsuccessfully appealed to Festus. Paul was in prison for two years awaiting a trial. But the lies didn’t bind him or discourage him. Paul didn’t allow the injustices he experienced to make him bitter.

There is freedom and contentment in God’s truth. The religious leaders were bound by their own lies. Instead of submitting to the God they claimed they followed, they wanted people to submit to them. Unlike Paul, their focus was on their own power, not God’s. They had unwittingly imprisoned themselves in their effort to quench the followers of Jesus.

Paul’s writings point the way to Jesus and the freedom he promises. Jesus's promise of freedom is the same today. You can be free of the bondage and bitterness of the lies that surround you. Jesus died and rose from the dead to break the bondage of sin. He broke the bondage of sin in your life. No matter what you face and what sin surrounds you. Live in his freedom forever.

Pray

Jesus died for your sins. He died to break the chains of sin that bind and embitter a soul. Whenever sin seeks to ensnare you again, pray that, like Paul, scales would fall from your eyes, allowing you to see the one who gives perfect freedom.

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