Daily Encounter: A Week-day Devotional by a staff of ACTS International.

Monday, February 11, 2013

The Bible says, "Let us lay aside every weight and the sin that so easily trips and entangles us, so we are free to run the race that is before us."¹ "But those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint."²

A friend of mine has trouble with Japanese bonsai trees because she sees tiny trees with great potential inhibited because they have been purposely root bound by man. Others have trouble seeing animals and birds trapped in cages for the same reason. For example, how do eagles feel in zoos? Do these magnificent birds, created to soar to the heights of mountaintops, get frustrated? Probably. Are they fulfilled? I seriously doubt it.

Too many of us who were created to reach our total God-given human and spiritual potential and to fulfill God's noble purpose for our life, are trapped in a cage of our own or of another's making. We fail to resolve the problems in our life that hold us back. We fail to come to terms with the destructive habits in our life. True, we may have been wounded in the past, but God wants us to be healed, to be free to fly, to soar to the heights of all that he has for us.

We have a choice, we can scratch in the dirt with the turkeys or we can rise up to follow Christ and fly with the eagles to the heights that God planned and envisioned for us to reach. That choice is ours.

Suggested prayer: "Dear God, please help me to find my wings and learn to fly with the eagles to the heights you have planned for me to reach. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus' name, amen."

Note: See Dick's book, You Can't Fly With a Broken Wing, on sale at http://tinyurl.com/yrjrnl.

1. Hebrews 12:1, Paraphrase.
2. Isaiah 40:31 (NIV).

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