Life at Oak Grove

The 1828 edition of the Webster Dictionary define bondage as this:

BOND'AGE, n. Slavery or involuntary servitude; captivity; imprisonment; restraint of a person's liberty by compulsion. In ancient English law, villenage.

1. Obligation; tie of duty.

He must resolve not to be brought under the bondage of observing oaths.

2. In scripture, spiritual subjection to sin and corrupt passions, or to the yoke of the ceremonial law; servile fear. Heb.2. Gal.2. Rom.8.

All kind of things can put us in bondage – temptation, people, self-destructive tendencies, and so on.  It could be lust, alcohol, drugs, medications,…  You get the idea.  The important thing is to be praying about the bondage you are experiencing to see deliverance.  We can’t do it on our own.   At this point in our life, I don’t think there is anything that bonds my husband.   But you never know when it could happen.   Prayer is important even if you don’t see anything in your spouse’s life.

Lord, You have said to call upon You in days of trouble and You will deliver us.   It is giving us a peace of mind to know that You are there at all times.  If there is anything in my husband’s life that binds him, I pray that You set him free.  Be a rock of refuge for him, for me and for the kids.

Help him to identify and recognize the work of evil, to stay confident that You are working in his life.

I pray that he will be strong in the Lord and put on the whole armor of God, so he can stand against the enemy’s schemes in our life.  Help him to gird his waist with Truth and put on the breastplate of righteousness, having shod his feet with the gospel of peace.  Enable him to take up the shield of faith, with which to avoid the darts of the wicked one.  I pray that he will take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God, praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful and standing strong to the end.   Amen.

Psalm 18:2-3

The Lord is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer; my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge.   He is my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.  I call to the LORD, who is worthy of praise, and I am saved from my enemies.

Luke 4:18

The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach the good news to the poor.   He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor. (also in Isaiah 61:1-2)

Tomorrow, the chapter covers his obedience.