Let Go, Let God

"So if the Son sets you free, you are truly free” John 8:36

This may not be your typical Father’s Day post, but it’s what God’s been working in my heart on this day that has always been very difficult for me.

This afternoon as I was scrolling through my Facebook and Instagram getting jealous of all the beautiful Father’s Day posts, I felt God tugging on my heart. When I finally took a break from letting social media reveal to me all the things I think I don’t have on this day, God whispered what has turned my whole world upside down.

“Katie, you can’t set someone else free if you still have yourself locked in a prison.”

Wow! We spend so much of our time holding on to and dragging around chains that have already been broken. God set us free from that life– He washed away every mistake we’ve ever made but we still see ourselves through the lens of our past. We still define ourselves by what we’ve done or what’s been done to us.

But God’s yoke is easy and His burden is light. His mercies are new every morning! He casts our sins as far as the east is from the west and He binds up every single one of our wounds.

He doesn’t see what we’ve done, He sees us through the lens of what’s been done for us–through the blood of Jesus!

When God whispered that in my heart He also showed me that when you believe in and walk in your victory and your freedom, you will set free everyone around you!

Just look at what happened when Paul and Silas were in prison (Acts 16). Their bodies may have physically been imprisoned but they didn’t have a prison mentality. They knew who they were and who Christ was and they worshiped just like they were free. Because of their worship, God not only set them free, but He set free everyone around them.

We (and I mean me included) have got to let go of our chains. To unlock the jail cell with the keys that Jesus has already given us. To unlock the mindsets that keep us stuck; that keep us victims.

I may have been abused and abandoned, hurt and mistreated by my biological father, but I am not an abused, abandoned, hurt, little girl anymore!

I am 21 years old, I am strong and successful, I am whole and healed, I have everything I need and I am not lacking in any good thing–especially love! I am not perfect, but I’m not who I was either!

On this day, this day that usually makes me sad and depressed, this day that I usually spend feeling so sorry for myself for what I don’t have, all the love I think I missed out on, I choose to let myself out of the prison that only I have been keeping myself in for so long. God already opened the door, and I’ve been sitting in there sulking for at least the past 4 years.

I choose to trade in a mentality of lack–focused on all the things that I don’t have–for one of positivity and thankfulness for what I do have. I only regret that its taken me so long to quit the pity party and start enjoying my many blessings, including a man who has chosen to be my dad for the past 14 years and loves me like I am his own.

I am not a victim of anything! I am victorious in and through Jesus and so are YOU! Walk in your victory, in your freedom, and watch how God will use you to tear down walls, shatter chains, and fling prison doors wide open for everyone around you!!