Thurs.’s Devo - Getting out of Bondage

Read: 1 Chronicles 9:1-10:14, Acts 27:21-44, Ps. 8:1-9, Pr. 18:23-24 Today we are reading about the first people to return to Jerusalem after being taken captive to Babylon. The first to claim their land were the priests, the Levites and the Nethinims (temple servants). Their sin had caused them to be taken. It is the same for us. When we turn to a lifestyle of sin and godlessness, then we are taken captive by our sins and led to confusion (Babylon). What will bring us out of it is true worship and consecrated service to God (the Levites). One of the first things they put in place was the gate keepers. One of the first things we have to put in place after leaving bondage is boundaries and spiritual gatekeepers. For example: if we are coming out of the bondage of alcohol. Then we need boundaries set that will keep us from falling back into that sin. We might need to change our route home so we don’t pass our favorite bar, change our friends, get an accountability partner, replace old habits with good ones. These are all gatekeepers that guard our hearts and bodies from falling back into bondage. In Acts we see Paul, a prisoner in a boat in the midst of a storm. Paul had warned them this would happen but they refused to listen. God told Paul that every man would be spared, so when it looked fatal, they could rest in what God told him. He even told the men would all be spared. Now they were listening to Paul since he had been right about the storm. They even abandoned their plans to take the lifeboats. Paul was in control and had them sit and eat their last meal on the boat. Because of Paul’s concern for the life of his captors, they spared his life and the lives of all the other prisoners. Lord, thank you that You are control of every situation.