This week we’re featuring the “Pray and Play” devotionals. I pray, then I hit shuffle play on the BIG Life Mornings Spotify playlist, and whatever song plays first is the inspiration for the day’s devotional.
And today, ya’ll we hit the jackpot! I could literally just play this song for it’s 8 minutes of entirety and we would have ourselves a full on devotional, but there’s a whole lot I want to say about it too, so you still get me!
The song: Ain’t No Grave
By: Bethel Music and Molly Skaggs
I don’t know who this chick Molly is, but Lord Jesus she can sing! In doing a bit of research, I discovered this woman with such amazing talent has struggled with fear and shame her entire life. This song is her personal testimony of overcoming that which held her back.
Shame is a prison as cruel as a grave
Shame is a robber and he’s come to take my name
Oh, love is my redeemer
Lifting me up from the ground
Love is the power when my freedom song is found
There ain’t no grave
Gonna hold my body down
What is threatening to hold you down? What serves as your prison, holding you back? What is your grave, burying your potential alive?
Is it shame, guilt, regret? Is it worry, fear, insecurities, doubt? Is it a lack of desire, a weak willpower, a settled spirit that’s decided maybe this is all there is for you? Is it a bad habit that’s chained you up or an addiction that’s buried you?
The enemy has been playing and his games are never fair. He taunts you with his lies, he stirs up those old fears and emotions, he replays the tape in your head that says you’ll never change, he poke and prods you with his stick which always says you’ll never measure up.
BUT YOU HAVE A REDEEMER!
A redeemer who walks in love. But don’t let that love fool you. We often confuse walking in love with walking in weakness. Love is the greatest power. Think about it Mama Bear … you know your love is a powerful force for your children. You would climb any mountain to save your child. You would knock down any door to get to them. There’s no distance you wouldn’t go, no enemy you wouldn’t boldly fight, no battle you would back down from if it meant rescuing your child. Women have been known to run through fire to rescue their baby. Pick up a full sized car to save their child. The impossible! The impossible is made possible purely because of our love. Love isn’t weak, love is pure power.
Your redeemer walks in love, and he’s walking straight towards YOU! His love can rescue you from any prison, any cage, any grave. Anything the enemy has used to hold you back is about to be torn the heck down!!!!!
The grave didn’t keep your redeemer down. He rose up out of that grave and honey, it was for you. He rose up so he could raise you up to. He overcame the grave so you would never have to stay stuck in yours. The very things that threaten to bury your potential, the things that threaten to make you play little in your own life, sit it out, and let it pass you by … oh those things don’t have a chance. Your redeemer is here to say NO MORE!!!!!!
No more shame, guilt and regret. Jesus has already covered your transgressions. Your missteps have already been redeemed. He’s already using those mistakes for something good now. No, shame … No, guilt … No, regret … YOU DON’T WIN! You have been overpowered by the love of my redeemer who says that’s no longer mine to carry around. Bye bye now, I’m stepping out of that grave!
Hey worry, hey fear, hey all you insecurities and doubt … you’re no longer welcome here. You belong in a prison, but I don’t. I’ve sat here behind the bars with you for long enough, my freedom has been bought and I don’t have to say here with you. I get to walk freely into the life available to me now because my redeemer has broken the chains and I’ve been set free. I’m no longer ruled by my worries and fears, they can come and they can go. When they knock on my door, I get to remind them they’re not welcome here – go on back to the prison where you belong! I don’t live there anymore. When insecurities and doubt threaten my progress, I remember my truth. I’ve been fully redeemed and I march on!
I know who I was created to be now. I was created to be FIERCE. I have been given a mission and the power to fulfill that mission. My mission is to live this life I have been given and live it WILDLY – freely, authentically, wholly. Without walls or confinements. Unleashed to live in my fullest state of potential. It’s BEAST MODE ON, no longer caged.
And that cage, well we made that cage ourselves didn’t we? Hand crafted by our own lack of willpower and settled ways. Only showing up when we feel like it has us trapped in that cage. Doing just enough to get by has us cornered in that cage. Settling for less than we’re really capable of has us chained in that cage. Counting ourselves out has us completely stuck in that cage. And living in fear has us beaten in that cage.
But our redeemer is here to free us from our self-created cage and lead us to the WILD, BIG Life still available to us. He says, “honey, don’t you want to run wild and live free?” Come with me!
2 Timothy 1:7 “For the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love and self-discipline.”
There wasn’t a grave that could hold Jesus down – and he did that so no grave would hold you down!
There wasn’t a prison or a cage that could limit Jesus. Now his power lives within you.
There’s not a single prison built out of worry, fear, insecurities or doubt that can restrain his power in you. BREAK FREE MY SISTER! Freedom is yours.
No cage designed by your own struggles can possibly contain the power living inside of you. You don’t have to stay here. You were not created to be a caged, tamed, well-kept beast. You were created to be FIERCE. And fierce beasts don’t play little in cages. Stop playing little and step out into the BIG Life available to you!
Follow Jesus as he leads you out of the grave in your life. Shake off that victim mentality and stand up to the truth of who you really are. You’ve been redeemed by the power of the greatest love. You’ve been made whole, counted as worthy, and filled with potential to live this life as only you can live. Don’t waste it!
