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 dies 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 and get out of messes they have caused, or to look more important. The more we do it, the stronger the chains of sin wrap around us, making it harder to break free.
Yet, through Christ’s sacrifice on the cross, He comes to restore us. He frees us from the guilt, the anger, the isolation, the misguided pride. Our focus is now off ourselves. It is on loving God and our neighbor. Some call it servitude attitude. All find worth in Him- all have a common bond, so there is no more envy or greed, pride or a need to lie.
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.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y-4NFvI5U9w
