Trapped

Have you ever felt trapped?

The walls in your home seem to close in around you. A place that should make you feel safe and restful becomes a prison of sorts. There is no relief at work though you are busy and distracted by many activities. You feel pressed up against the wall with looming deadlines. Negative conversations from co-workers seem to corral you into a tight corner. It's like vultures circling over head just waiting for you to drop dead. You try to read the Word of God but this unexplainable fear grips your stomach and you can't even cry out for help. You long for a place of freedom. A place to breathe. Any past victories seem to have faded from memory and you can't recall a moment of joy.

David was on the run from King Saul only to find himself in more fearful place - he was trapped. He faced the king of Achish who was a Philistine warlord. Remember David had killed their champion Goliath. Overwhelmed and trapped David decided to feigned madness. In I Samuel 21:13 it says, "So he pretended to be insane in their presence; and while he was in their hands he acted like a madman, making marks on the doors of the gate and letting saliva run down his beard." Insanity was considered a fearful condition in those days so they quickly tossed him out. David then found himself in a more constricted space. He retreated to a cave in Adullam.

There in that fortress like place he wrote Psalm 142, a prayer in his lowest hour. He writes in verse 7: "Set me free from my prison, that I may praise your name. Then the righteous will gather about me because of your goodness to me." (NIV).

Only God can deliver us from our madness and the terrible sense of being confined and constricted to live freely for Him. Beloved, if you are bound by a sinful habit or find yourself in a cave of despair and gloom - there is One who rose from the dead to quicken us to life again. Just as He called out Lazarus by name - so too we will find freedom if we respond to His wooing. We have this promise in Job 36:16 that says, "He is wooing you from the jaws of distress to a spacious place free from restriction, to the comfort of your table laden with choice food." (NIV).

Freedom will always begin by thanking Him before the walls fall and we are set free from our prison. So thank Him and watch as His light pierces the darkest places in our lives to lead us out into a broad and spacious place (Psalms 18:19).