I would love to start this off today telling you I am free from fear. That Jesus has set me free and this is how you get there, but I cannot. It isn’t because Jesus has not set me free, that is just not true. I am free I just choose to stay in my jail cell even though I could walk right up and push the door open.
I am comfortable here in my jail cell. No it is not pleasant, I don’t get treated well and sometimes bad things happen, but, if I keep quiet, and eat the food I am being given I at least know what to expect for the most part. Let’s be honest I am in jail, you can picture, it no matter how I draw it, 
it is not good.
We are asked to “Throw off the fear that so easily enslaves us” (prompted by Hebrews 12:1) Why am I not doing that. I serve the King, The sovereign God of the universe and there is so much out there He is waiting to show me. Why do I resist? Why do I shut the door like a child and say no? What do I gain? Peace? Quiet? These come to mind, but it is not really like that because it is a jail cell, little vermin are crawling around you, you can hear them even when you cannot see them. It is hard cold and uncomfortable. You are always being confronted with why you are there. No it is neither peaceful nor quiet.
As He paints this picture while I write, I am seeing it all in a new light. Several months ago God asked me to write, He asked me to share the journey He has set me on with others. Slowly He has been opening my mind to this and showing me His thoughts and direction. Last night I read a post by a blog I love One September Day. The post was Brave Steps for a Quiet Heart. It was another step in my journey to freedom from fear. Here is a mother of ten blogging and this post was Jesus speaking right to me from the honesty of this womans heart. She spoke of her fears , of being honest, of showing the good and the bad. Everything she wrote about in this post were things the Spirit had already been saying to me. Her post was confirmation and opened my eyes to the fact that I was not alone, I was not hearing wrong.
This morning I got some rare alone time. I began my time writing out the things of yesterday and this morning I was thankful for, my blessings, my gifts, as another gifted woman of God (Ann Voskamp) has put it, and Jesus took my hand and walked me down this road. He showed me the flowers waiting to bloom on the roadside and the beautiful sights I was missing as I sat in my cell or trudged down my road not looking around me. The birds, as I wrote, were singing a literal chorus in my background I had never heard so many in all my quiet times sitting outside. I looked back at myself sitting in that jail cell and I am thinking “What am I doing? I should open it! I want to open it!” So here 
I am writing, opening the door, looking outside.
As I write this post I know not all of them are going to be about me being free but about Christ freeing me. They will sometimes be about my journey opening the door, stepping out and looking around . They will sometimes be about my steps to freedom rather than the freedom I know.
Today I started with fear and as I wrote, the words of Jesus washed over and freed me a little more. I am so thankful to stand in His presence and go in His direction no matter how scary. Where He is, where He leads, there is always light, there is always strength, there is always peace when I open that door. Here is to freedom from fear!
fullyfreelife 