When I opened my eyes, I realized the room was dark. As I looked around I saw a small window, but there was no sunlight coming through. On the opposite side was a large metal door. I moved to go towards it, but when I tried to get up I realized I’m shackled to the floor. I cry out for someone to help me, but I hear nothing. “Lord, why is this happening?” I ask. There’s no response. I asked again, “Lord, why?” My fear grows with every second of silence.

After what seemed an eternity I hear a voice. “Praise Me”, He says. What? I must not have heard that right. How could I praise Him when I’m chained in this prison cell? The Lord reminds me that Paul and Silas were once in prison. They sang praises to God and a great earthquake came and opened the doors and loosed the chains (Acts 16:25-26). “If you wish to be free, sing praises to Me.” I still don’t understand. “But Lord, this is life and death. How can I sing praises? Tell me that You will choose life so that I can sing praises to you.” That’s not how He works. I ask again for Him to tell me if it will be life or death. He responds with, “Does it matter?” Of course! He asked me again, “Does it matter? Will an outcome of life or death change who I am?” Will it? Can He ever be anything other good? The answer is no. I find the strength to push through the fear and tell Him that He is good. Whatever He chooses I will praise Him.

Just then a burst of light comes through the window. It grows and overtakes the darkness of the cell. I close my eyes to escape it. I feel my chains fall to the ground and with it the walls that once held me captive. I was free! In a matter of seconds, my captivity had turned to freedom. This is my story. I was chained in a prison cell of fear. I had let the enemy in and convince me that death was looming. Not my own, but my daughters.

One thing my mom had always taught me growing up is that the enemy can’t read your mind. Only once something is spoken can he act. I had made the mistake one day of speaking my fear out loud to a friend. I was afraid she wouldn’t survive. Bam! The enemy put death everywhere. It was in the music I heard. It was in the shows I watched. It was a sticker on the cars around me. The enemy had been so convincing that I began to believe that this was God preparing me to lose her.

When I had my quiet times, crying out to the Lord to spare her, he took me the story of Abraham and Isaac. He told me that just as Abraham had to lay Isaac down as an offering without knowing the ram would appear, so I had to do. I questioned Him. How could I lay her down without knowing? I needed to know. How was I to prepare my heart? How could I lay my child at His altar and not know if He would spare her life? He continued to ask me if He was good. He told me over and over to sing His praises. I didn’t want to.

I thought back to the saying that “God will never give you more than you can handle”. This was more than I could handle, but God knew that. He told me that He will always give me more than I can handle, because I’m not meant to. I’m meant to hand it off to Him. When I let go of it, He would be able to work. And so, I made the decision to praise Him either way. I decided that my God is a good God and that if the ram didn’t appear for my daughter, that she would still have life…just life with Him.

When I praised him, I could suddenly breathe again. My imprisonment had faded away and all I could see was the glory of my King. When we surrender and release our fear or worries for praise, we are set free to sit back and watch Him work! It’s such a simple task that He asks of us; to praise Him. How easy that is when the alternate option is to fix a situation that we were never meant to take on in the first place. I challenge you today, no matter what you are going through to let go. Be free from the bindings of this world. The enemy wants you to be locked in a cell, but God offers freedom. Freedom from the worries. Freedom from the chains. Freedom from fear. Freedom to cast them off on Him. Freedom to rest. Freedom to praise!

Most mornings I must load up all three kids to drop just one off at school. Yesterday my husband had a later start than usual for work and so I was able to leave the girls with him and just take Jones. This means on the way home from school I had a nice quiet car. I began to pray for the marriage of someone that I know. As I prayed God gave me a wonderful visual.

I’m sure many of you are familiar with Ecclesiastes 4:12 that says, “A cord of three strands is not quickly broken.” God brought this verse to my memory as I was praying. What I saw was two trees planted firmly in the ground. A rope (Christ) stretched around them as to move the two closer together, but it cannot. The trees may bend, but they are unwavering. The roots run too deep. If this continues then the trees will snap and break.

But soon God uproots the trees. Rather than replanting them, He plants Himself. A large sturdy tree that will never break. He has taken two ropes and twisted them around His tree instead. The rope intertwines as it twists around this large beautiful tree, but as is the way of life, stress is put on the rope. It begins to fray and come apart at the seams. However, if you put fire to the rope, it will burn it and keep it from coming apart. The rope is now stronger and will always bare the mark of being put to the fire.

I received this vision as I was praying for someone else, but it was fitting to my own marriage as well. For so long we tried to have Christ do what we thought was best, but in our stubbornness, nothing ever happened. It wasn’t until He uprooted us, and we had no choice but to wrap our lives around Him. We did fray in the stressful times. We came apart at the seams. Thankfully He held the fire to us and we came out stronger. You can see the scorch marks as they will never fade. At times we went in different directions, but when two ropes are wrapped around one tree, it’s inevitable that they should meet again.

How often do we try to switch places with God? We were not ever meant to be the tree that was planted in the ground. He was never meant to be the rope. Let go. Allow yourself to be uprooted. Allow God to take His rightful place as the sturdy, unmovable tree. His roots will reach farther than ours ever could. Allow Him to transform you into the rope. Yes, you may fray. You may stretch too thin and begin to feel yourself grow weaker, but He will hold the fire to you. The fraying will not only stop, but you will now be stronger. Don’t hide the burn mark in shame, but rather show it for all to see. A beautiful testimony of God’s faithfulness!