When You Are Feeling Trapped

"Don’t let anyone under pressure to give in to evil say, “God is trying to trip me up.” God is impervious to evil, and puts evil in no one’s way. The temptation to give in to evil comes from us and only us. We have no one to blame but the leering, seducing flare-up of our own lust. Lust gets pregnant, and has a baby: sin! Sin grows up to adulthood, and becomes a real killer.” James 1:14-15 The Message (MSG)

by Alexandra Copeland

In Genesis 1:26 (NLT), God said to Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.” In this verse, it is very clear to see that God created earth for the habitation of human beings, and He gave them not only the gift of free-will choice, but He also gave human beings dominion and authority in the earth. The definition of the word ‘dominion’ is the ability to control and self-govern. Heavenly Father never intended that any human being should dominate another, but He created us with the capacity to have enough love in our hearts and wisdom in our minds to govern ourselves.

Adam and Eve had perfect fellowship with Heavenly Father for a while. He communed with them in paradise, and we can only imagine the bliss they must have experienced during that time. When disobedience and distrust of God’s Word entered the picture, the catastrophic consequences of sin created such a break in the relationship between these two humans and God, that they lost their holy state. He could no longer fellowship with them in the way that He had. We can see from the very beginning what happens when we fail to honor the magnificence of God, and when we allow anything in this world to get in the way of our allegiance to His Word, and our commitment to walk in the example of Christ.

To say that the world has become a very complicated place is an understatement. Those that do not believe in the goodness of God are more lost than ever, but something surprising is also happening to the followers of Jesus Christ. Many of us are being trapped by some of the very same tricks and temptations as the unbelieving world. Can it be that we have taken our eyes off the prize?

Some Christians believe that God is testing the body of Christ to see who will stand and who will not, and this is the reason why the body of Christ finds itself in such a state of apathy and confusion. James 1:14-15 The Message (MSG) warns, “Don’t let anyone under pressure to give in to evil say, “God is trying to trip me up.” God is impervious to evil, and puts evil in no one’s way. The temptation to give in to evil comes from us and only us. We have no one to blame but the leering, seducing flare-up of our own lust. Lust gets pregnant, and has a baby: sin! Sin grows up to adulthood, and becomes a real killer.”

We live in an environment where the spirit of arrogance is very prominent. It’s rampant in the workplace and in our society at large. People are title and power hungry, and we have made a sport of absolving ourselves of personal responsibility for our poor choices and negative behavior. It’s either someone else’s fault or we seek to blame God for the shape we’re in. Some of us will accuse Him of tempting us with evil, when the Word clearly tells us that this cannot be. God already knows what we’re made of. He created us, and knows even the hairs on our heads. He knows us through and through. So we cannot lay the blame for our predicaments on God.

If we’re feeling trapped by our circumstances, and many of us are, we have to look in the mirror. Heavenly Father gave us dominion and authority. We can’t control other people, but we can certainly control ourselves. God doesn’t want us to become stuck in self-condemnation. He doesn’t want us to feel bad about ourselves and to put ourselves down. He wants us to rise up in our believing to recognize the tremendous spiritual gifts that we’ve been given, and to honor the transformative power of His love.

He didn’t give us substandard stuff. God gave us the best that could be given in all of eternity. To convey to someone even unconsciously that we lack the strength, love, and power to turn our lives around is not the truth. It does not bear witness of the great, big extraordinary God that we love and serve. 2Timothy 1:7 (NLT) says, “For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline.” He did not make us spiritual weaklings that are incapable of walking in liberty. Through Jesus Christ, we are free. We can walk in liberty, and the first thing that we have to do in order to embrace it is to repent with an earnest, Godly sorrow.

This isn’t a casual “oh, I’m sorry, Father.”  It’s a deep feeling of conviction about the actions we have personally taken to land ourselves in hot water. It’s a very sobering thing to look around and realize the mess we’ve gotten ourselves in, but it is also a very liberating thing to know that we’ve been empowered through Jesus Christ to spearhead newness in our very own existence. The first step begins with you, but glory to God that what you begin, He will finish!

Heavenly Father admonishes us in Romans 12:2 (NLT), “Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.”  God tells us not to follow the behavior and customs of society. Our hearts and minds should be governed by faith, love, and gratitude. Heavenly Father knows that it’s not always the easiest thing to give up those ‘old man’ habit patterns. That’s why He assures us that if we will change the way we think, He’ll transform us from the inside out.

If we’ll just make the decision to confront the thoughts that lead us down the wrong road; if we’ll capture them before they influence us to take the wrong action, the indwelling Holy Spirit will take the wheel from there and steer us into safe zones. You and I don’t have it within ourselves to clean up and make ourselves righteous. God has done this for us. Our responsibility as believers is to trust and believe that the Spirit that indwells us will help us to honor God.

God gave us free-will, and He will not overstep it. The rights to govern the way you think, act, respond, and behave is totally yours. You cannot make someone forgive your debts, apologize, or begin to treat you well, but your operation of the spiritual gifts that God has placed within you can make a dramatic impact on your circumstances. Heavenly Father designed everything in the earth to cooperate with His Word and Will, and when you fall in alignment and harmony with it, you’ll be utterly amazed at the new level of freedom through Jesus Christ that you’ll enjoy. ■

Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.

Scripture taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.