Almighty and everlasting God, whose will it is to restore all things in your
well-beloved Son, the King of kings and Lord of lords: Mercifully grant that
the peoples of the earth, divided and enslaved by sin, may be freed and
brought together under his most gracious rule; who lives and reigns with you
and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen
If you ever watched one of the Three Musketeer movies, you’d see them all with swords raised high and points touching as they cried, “All for one and one for all.” Another saying, often used for the United States, is “united we stand, divided we fall.”
Satan wishes to divide. God wants to re-unite us back to the right relationship before sin entered the human heart. That is the story from Genesis through Revelation, and on into today. But why does sin divide and enslave?
Sin divides because it causes each person to put him or herself as the center of focus. I once heard a speaker on a retreat say both sin and pride have “i” in the middle. But the other deadly sins focus on the “me want” factor as well- gluttony, envy, greed, wrath, slothfulness. Lying has “i” in the middle as well, doesn’t it? People lie to try to get out of messes they have caused, or to look more important out of envy and low self-worth. The more people do it, the stronger the chains of sin wrap around them, making it harder to break free.
Yet, through Christ’s sacrifice on the cross, He comes to restore each of us back to a state of grace- free from sin. He frees us from the guilt, the anger, the isolation, the misguided pride that so often rule our thoughts and actions. Of course, this is still a daily battle because our human nature wants to crawl back into those chains. Why? It is the norm. Change takes effort. But God knows that- that is why He sent His Spirit to guide, correct and comfort us in this effort.
With Christ as our center, our focus is now off ourselves. It is on loving God and our neighbor (the two greatest commandments onto which all else is hinged). Some call it servitude attitude. Since all find worth in Him- all have a common bond, so there is no more envy or greed, pride or a need to lie.Low self esteem won’t lead to gluttony or slothfulness.
As Chris Tomlin sings in his version of Amazing Grace from the movie by the same name- “these chains are gone, we have been set free.”
Click on it. Listen, and then pray. Be released.
Where Did You Find God Today? 