Are we institutionalized?

Reading: Ezekiel 21-22 and Galatians 4

Scripture: Galatians 4:31, So, brothers, we are not children of the slave but of the free woman.

Thoughts: Paul is reminding us of the freedom that Christ redeemed us from. Through the adoption into God’s family, we are made to free even though we tend to walk back into our slavery. There is a term for those who have been released from prison and don’t know how to cope with the freedom they have been granted, they are institutionalized, there are those that it is such an issue for them they will do a new crime to go back. Many Christians can find themselves in the same boat, we have spent so much time in the clutches of sin and taking the chains of our past with us we don’t know what to do with the freedom that we receive in Christ. Not that we are to sin more, but we are free from the guilt and condemnation of the chain we have caried with us for so long. Are we institutionalized by the sins of this world or are we striving forward into the calling The Father has placed in our lives? 

Prayer: Father God, creator of all things, almighty God, you are so wondrous. I thank you that you have called me and that you are leading me every day. I thank you that you are molding me into the man you call me to be, helping me to put down the chains of my past and walk in your grace and mercy. I ask that you help me to continue to strive after you every day.