Chosen Grace

Hello readers! it’s been over a month since I’ve last written to you guys, but I’m back. And in this post, I have some good news that I want to remind you all of. Read and enjoy!!

One of my favorite writers and poets is the late great Maya Angelou. She wrote a lot about her personal experiences. She wrote and spoke so well, that she gained much notoriety and fame in her life.

My favorite poem by her, and one of her most famed works, is I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. This body of work is really dope. It talks about how a trapped bird sings to be free, longing to soar in the air like the other birds.

And like the trapped bird in Dr. Angelou’s poem, we humans sometimes can feel trapped. It’s human nature to sometimes feel trapped in our emotions, thoughts, and even relationships. This can be scary at times- because it can be overwhelming and leave us fearful of things to come.

Personally, I’ve dealt with this. Sometimes I feel like a trapped bird: scared of what could happen, regretting things I’ve done, and longing to be free.

But when I feel this way, the Holy Spirit often tells me something that I want to share with you all today: You are already free. 

We are so free, that David wrote about this long before me and you in the psalm below:

“We have escaped like a bird from the snare of the fowlers; the snare is broken,
    and we have escaped!” –Psalm 124:7

As I stated above, David wrote this psalm, and he knew exactly what he was speaking about. You see, back in Biblical times, hunters used the snare to trap their prey, which was oftentimes little birds. The bird often had no way of getting out and would end up having a fateful ending.

Yet that isn’t the case in the verse above. Instead of the bird being trapped and doomed, David writes that the bird, symbolic of the Israelites, has escaped from the snare. Another translation says “the trap is broken, and we are free!” (Good News Bible Translation). 

Just as the Israelites in David’s time are free- so are we! We are not trapped by anything or anyone. We are free because Jesus paid our debt, on the cross long ago.

“And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up his spirit. And behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom.” –Matthew 17:50-51a ESV 

The verses above are important. They describe what happened as soon as Jesus took his last breath on the cross- the curtain of the temple was torn in two….the veil was broken.

This event may seem pretty random- but believe me- it’s not. You see, when the curtain was torn from the top to the bottom, that symbolized that there were (and are) no more barriers between God and His beloved people. It meant that God could freely allow us access to Him without all the rules and regulations of the Old Testament. It also meant that the temple was no longer needed because the Holy Spirit was on its way to live inside of anyone who would accept Jesus as the Savior.

To make it simple, Jesus dying for us set us free. And Galatians 5:1 puts it best:

“For freedom, Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.” ESV

Take a moment to read that verse again. Jesus didn’t die for our sins just to do it. He did it so that we could live freely, without sin holding us back. He died for our freedom. 

Now if that’s not freedom, I don’t know what is.

I want you guys to be fully aware that when Jesus died on Calvary, He set us free from our mistakes, our emotions, past relationships, any addiction, and anything else that could be hindering you from living your best life in Him.

Jesus died so that we could enjoy life with the Father, being led by the Holy Spirit.

Jesus died so that you could smile freely even in the midst of a storm.

Jesus died to break the snare so that even death has no sting (1 Corinthians 15:57b).

As this post comes to an end, I want to encourage you to live as you were called to live: in complete freedom. 

Don’t be held back by your past, your doubts, your fears. Instead be led knowing that because the snare is broken, we are free.

I rejoice because of the broken snare, and I encourage you all to do the same.

With love and new respect the broken snare,

Malaysia =)