I got in my car and got situated. I picked up my phone and started looking for a podcast. I don’t listen to the radio. I have no patience for commercials. I either listen to Spotify or a podcast. But today was different. The song on the radio caught my attention and I decided I needed to listen. So, Ieft the radio on.

I ended up turning the radio down for a minute to pray. I had to get some stuff off of my chest. I was allowing some words to become truths in my life and I needed to shut them down. I prayed that God would break the chains of the lies I was believing: fear, worry, anxiety, doubt, feeling jaded. I was holding onto a lot. I needed to break free.

Of course, I cried. If you have been with me long enough, you know this is a natural response. I am a crier. So, I cried to God to break the chains of the words that encapsulated me and said, “Amen”. I turned the radio up just as one song was ending and another beginning. I started to sing along out of habit not really hearing the words.

All of a sudden, I heard what I was singing.

“My chains are gone

I’ve been set free

My God, my Savior, has ransomed me”

Say what?!?! I pray asking God to break my chains and then this song comes on? I couldn’t believe it. Yes, I was a puddle of tears.

All I wanted yesterday was to be set free of the chains that came in the form of words and have a boring day. I had had enough excitement lately. I prayed. God answered. Immediately.

So often we think God doesn’t hear us or must not be listening. We search and search for answered prayer only to come up empty. What we don’t realize is that we are usually searching in the wrong places. He answers. We just have to open our ears and our hearts to see.

It took me a minute to really truly hear the words in that song. Whether a Christian or not, everyone knows the words to Amazing Grace. It’s one of those songs you sing out of pure memory not thinking about the lyrics. I am so glad I finally listened.

God wants to break those chains that are enslaving you. He wants to set you free of the control they have over you. He wants to show himself to you and that he is very much at work in your life. Will you slow down enough to notice? Will you listen?

Freedom is on the other side. It is waiting for you. What is preventing you from getting to that place. Pray. Ask God to show you. I promise you he will show up just as he did for me in my car. You only need to notice. He is there. He is near.

Love & Blessings,

Meg

Amazing grace! How sweet the sound
That saved a wretch like me!
I once was lost, but now am found;
Was blind, but now I see.

’Twas grace that taught my heart to fear,
And grace my fears relieved;
How precious did that grace appear
The hour I first believed.

Through many dangers, toils and snares,
I have already come;
’Tis grace hath brought me safe thus far,
And grace will lead me home.

The Lord has promised good to me,
His Word my hope secures;
He will my Shield and Portion be,
As long as life endures.

Yea, when this flesh and heart shall fail,
And mortal life shall cease,
I shall possess, within the veil,
A life of joy and peace.

The earth shall soon dissolve like snow,
The sun forbear to shine;
But God, who called me here below,
Will be forever mine.

When we’ve been there ten thousand years,
Bright shining as the sun,
We’ve no less days to sing God’s praise
Than when we’d first begun.