Tuesday, March 2, 2010

Read Mark 5: 1-20

This is one powerful passage for me, scary in so many ways, but at the same time so very liberating!! I am sure there are many of you that will feel the same way if you just let go and let God in as you read it.

For me the evil spirits were alcohol, poverty, homelessness, and depression. It did not matter what people did, I was not going to be stopped. I started drinking at the age of 11, and I had teachers, counselors, and even juvenile officers that tried to get me to stop, it wasn’t happening. This lifestyle is what brought me to living on the streets. I slept in tents, boarded up buildings and strangers houses, friends tried to step in but I wasn’t having any part of it. I was the victim of rape because all the man needed to do was offer me a drink and said he had a house I could rent, I just needed to go to his house to sign papers, people told me no, alcohol told me go for it. But then someone who truly cared for me and was not ashamed of what I had become, told me I needed to be in church, and after going a few times, Jesus reached down into my heart, told me I was His child, He loved me no matter where I had been or what I had done and all He wanted from me was to say Yes, I accept Jesus as my Lord and Savior. And that is just what I did, and the chains were broken: I have been alcohol free for almost 18 years, (this includes anything made with alcohol), I have a roof over my head and 2 jobs plus going to school, and even though she was conceived as the result of the rape, a daughter that rocks my world!! Plus my son loves me and will do anything for me and his sister no matter what.

So, next time you see someone going through some of these things just go ahead a take a moment and let them know the chains can be broken!!!!!

Prayer: Lord, thank you for breaking so many chains for us, and for being there all the time. As we encounter others who need chains broken stop us in our tracks and be our words to help them break their chains.

Amen

Cindy Harding