COMFORTABLE IN OUR BONDAGE

And they said to them, "Let the Lord look on you and judge, because you
have made us abhorrent
in the sight of Pharaoh and in the sight of his servants, to put a sword in
their hand to kill us."
-- EXODUS 5:21

It is possible for people to become so accustomed to their bondage that
they resist efforts to free
them. The Hebrews had been slaves in Egypt for four hundred years. Slavery
meant that they
were not free to do God's will or to go where they wanted. Moses had come
to tell the Israelites
how they could experience freedom, yet they were more concerned about the
reaction of their
taskmasters than they were about pleasing God. For them to be free would
mean that the pharaoh
they were serving would be angry! It would mean that the Egyptians they had
served all their lives
might attack them. Freedom from their slavery did not seem to be worth the
hardships they would
inevitably endure. When God sets out to free us there will often be a price
we will have to pay.
Grief can be a terrible form of bondage, yet we can become comfortable with
it. We can grow so
comfortable with fear that we don't know how to live without it. As
destructive as our sinful habits
and lifestyle might be, we may prefer living with the familiar, rather than
being freed to experience
the unknown. We may recognize the harmful influence of a friend but choose
to reject God's will
rather than offend our friend. As incredible as it seems, the Israelites
were angry at Moses for
disrupting the life of slavery to which they had grown accustomed. Have you
been lulled into a
comfortable relationship with your bondage? Do you fear change more than
you fear God?
Are you willing to allow God to do what is necessary in order to free you?

Pastor Tai