KEEPER OF THE FLAME
I must admit I love old movies.
I am a Turner Classic Movie fan. The other day I was watching an old Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn movie, “Keeper of the Flame”. Tracy is a reporter trying to write a biography on Hepburn’s husband, Robert Forrest, who was a civic leader, but died when his car ran off a collapsed bridge. Tracy finds many hidden secrets and that Hepburn is trying to keep them hidden while she keeps the memory of her husband alive and well. In this movie, Tracy meets a young boy named, Jeb. Jeb spend a lot of time with Mr. Forrest and was very upset at his death. He thought he could have saved him. In talking to Jeb they begin to talk about being a slave to someone. Jeb says it would be hard to work as a slave because your hands and feet would be bound. Tracy comments that they wouldn’t bind your hands and feet but instead they would bind your mind and your mouth. Boy, did that strum a cord with me.
You see many of us are working diligently with our hands and going places with our feet. We don’t feel bound because in many ways we are still being productive. We are still accomplishing certain things. But when we stop to look at it in this vain of thought, I wonder just how many are really bound. The enemy of our souls has bound our minds with fear, doubt, worry, unbelief, insecurities, unforgiveness, hatred, bitterness, and many other things that keep us from being free to be who God has called us to be. Through binding our minds he also binds us mouths and keeps us from speaking in faith and speaking encouragement and victory.
If he can bind my mind with fear then I will not speak about peace, I will not meditate on the peace that God promised, my entire being will be bound in fear.
My dear friend, it is NOT God’s desire for us to be bound by things that will hinder us from walking in close fellowship with God. The only thing we should be bound with is Christ’s love. Bound in relationship with Him, learning about Him, loving Him, obeying His word, finding a strength, a joy, in being His. He said in Matthew 11:30 that His yoke is easy and His burden is light.
You know we too should be keepers of the flame. Keepers of the fire of God. Keeping His love and Word alive in our own hearts and lives so that we can pass it on to those we come into contact with. The enemy doesn’t want us to do that so he does his best to bind us with things that hinder us from fulfilling our God given purpose. Sometimes it would be easier to help someone who had chains on their hands and feet and you could see what they were bound with and try to help them. But the bondages so many are carrying today are on their minds and mouths and we can’t see them with the natural eye. They can continue on doing stuff, but not being all they are supposed to be because of the bondage.
John 8:34-36 talks of being a slave to sin, but ends with reminding us that whom the Son sets free is FREE INDEED! The good news is that we don’t have to stay bound! We can be set free! We can walk free! Talk free! Live in the freedom Christ has provided for us!
I encourage you today, if you find your mind bound with anything that would hinder you from going forward in your walk with Christ, stop! Find a place to pray! Let Christ set you free! Let Him change the way you are thinking. You will never be the same and you will never regret it!! Pick up the torch and fan the flame!! We have a work to do!
A NOTE FROM LWG: Today’s post is written by Rese Moore. Please give Rese a warm LACED WITH GRACE welcome as she joins our writing team. You will be seeing more of her in the future. WELCOME ABOARD RESE!
sending you love, prayers, and blessings rese. welcome, enjoyed your post.
Rese, your posts are so heartfelt and profound – this really sruck a chord with me as tears streamed whilst reading. Thank you so much for sharing.
It is so true that we are bound by fear and we are not stepping out from under it. May God gives us the strength to step out and follow His lead.