What could be holding you back? What hinders you from stepping fulling into the life you are destined for as the person you were created to become? It’s different for each of us, and changes with the stages of our life, but there is always something threatening to entangle us, trap us, and hold us back from our greatest potential.

A life not fully lived. Potential not fully recognized. Offerings left untouched. Blessings left unclaimed. All that God imagined when he designed you, that’s what is up for grabs here. Are you grabbing it, or has it been hidden from you?

Seriously has the enemy buried what you could have with his cheap imitations and offerings that fall short of the full potential you carry, all so you settle here and don’t keep going? You’re a threat if you keep going. So settling is the goal, and if a guaranteed paycheck, a new car, a big house to clean, a hectic schedule, a closet full of clothes, or a fancy job title will keep you distracted from your purpose, then your adversary, the devil, will work overtime to offer you all these sweet little comforts.

Are any of these things bad? Absolutely not. But if they are in the way of your full freedom to live the life God is offering you, then they become your prison. And I know. I know because I was once in each of those prisons. I had a $1200 car payment for a car I didn’t even like, but it was impressive to someone else. I had the big house built, then became burdened by mopping thousands of feet of tile floors. I had the fancy job title with a hectic schedule, became wrapped up in what I did and all I earned, and missed years of my kids growing up. I once counted and I had over 500 items hanging in my closet and that same day I went out and bought more.

I was in prison. Captive to a life that looked good on the outside, but felt so empty on the inside. Held in bondage by all I had worked so hard for, then it worked so hard to keep me. And y’all, one by one, I was set free.

But let me tell you about the process of being set free … it can be painful. It can feel more like a breaking down than a freedom party. But don’t miss in your season of loss, you are gaining something so much greater.

John 8:36 “So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.”

And let me tell you, Jesus set me free so I could be free indeed. Free from the fancy job title and hectic schedule, I was fired. Free from the closet of clothes, the big fancy house, and the ridiculous car payment; we had to sell everything we owned, piece by piece, to survive. Free from the care of what others thought about me, because guess what, they all were talking.

It didn’t feel like I was being set free. It felt like I was being set back. It felt like life was falling apart. It felt like my whole world was spinning out of control. But I was being washed, washed clean of all the nonsense I had layered on to this one precious life I have been offered. And now I was going through the spin cycle. Spinning, spinning, and spinning. And things were just flying off me. Things I had layered on in my life and the enemy had sneakingly used to weigh me down and make me settle.

I wasn’t created for that life. Neither were you. You weren’t created to be bogged down by all you have, and all it requires to get more. That’s a work of the enemy to keep you from ever living in the freedom Christ came to give you.

I have to wonder if the very thing happening in your life right now isn’t there to destroy you, it’s there to free you. But it never feels freeing. It never feels liberating. It feels frightening. It feels debilitating. It feels like a punishment. But give it a moment sister, let it settle in what God may be doing here and just see if freedom isn’t being offered in this.

I used to have a 3 ring binder that held images of all my hopes and dreams. Specifically I remember a magazine cutout of an elaborate dining room set I had wanted for years. One day I got that fancy butt table and chairs and it filled my large formal dining room. It was impressive seeing it when you waked in the double front doors. But dang girl, get a grip, who the heck are you trying to impress?

Soon we found ourselves in a legal battle to keep and protect the little girls we had brought home from an orphanage in Mexico. That battle continued for 6 years and required 7 attorneys. This meant every penny we had, and beyond. Reluctantly I put that prized dining room table up for sale and it sold. A man came with a horse trailer to load up this piece of furniture I had envisioned for years. This thing I loved so much. And as he drove away and I walked back in those double front doors and saw an empty dining room, I prepared myself for sadness. Instead I found my 3 young children riding scooters like it was a race track in the empty dining room declaring it was the greatest day ever. So I rode with them.

It was fine. It was more than fine. It was freedom.

The dining room set was the first of everything to go. Everything. We sold it all. Why? Because it all had held us back for far too long. A life of freedom was awaiting us and we had proven the things we owned had started to own us.

What owns you? What runs your day? What holds you back in anything less than you were created for? Well sis, I speak from experience, you may just get set free from that! Remember that when things fall apart, your good plans come crashing down, and nothing works to save it … this is what freedom looks like before you realize you’re being set free.

Galatians 5:1 “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.”

If you’ve already been set free and saved from a life caught in the cheap imitation offerings of the enemy, don’t allow yourself to go back there again. You must stand firm against that enslaved life, because it always tries to creep back in.

YOU ARE A SLAVE TO NOTHING! You have been set free. Free to live a BIG Life of all God created you for. And if you won’t seek that freedom for yourself, then God sometimes does some shaking of the prison walls you have grown accustom to, then puts you in the spin cycle so it all spins right off you.

Spinning, spinning, spinning. Freeing, freeing, freeing.

Let it go sis. Open up your clenched hands, let life flow through you and trust freedom is God’s greatest plan for you. You are a slave to nothing because Christ has set you free.