Self-Made Prison

"And Jesus said, 'Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing'......" - Luke 23:34

Jesus said these words from the cross.  Today is Good Friday--the day we commemorate Jesus's sacrificial payment for our sins.  There are many who believe they have not sinned and therefore do not need to be "saved" because they have not committed a crime punishable by law.  What they do not understand is that the word "sin" actually means "missing the mark."  In God's eyes we have all sinned and fallen short of the glory that He intended for us.  Whether or not we FEEL the guilt of this it is there at some deeper level wreaking havoc in our ability to fully love ourselves.  We do not feel we deserve all the goodness God wants to give us.  This is living from a place of fear which in turn causes us to strike out at others, judging them so that we can feel better about our own selves.  It causes us to try to control everyone and everything around us in order to feel safe.  It is a self-made prison from which Jesus came to break us free.

The gate to this cemetery in the above photo represents the prison bars that many buried there are experiencing because they would not believe that they had been set free.  Jesus has forgiven them because they, too, did not know what they were doing by not accepting God's gift of salvation.  But because they do not realize that the gate is no longer locked, they stay in their self-made prisons.

I am grateful that Jesus took up His Cross and paid for my sin so that I could be set free.