Today's encouragement comes from Ephesians 4:1, where we read these words of Paul:
"I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the call-ing with which you were called . . . "Are we comfortable being referred to as "prisoner[s] of the Lord"? For that matter, do we think it odd for us in the church to accept instruction from some-one who was a "prisoner"? But "prison" is the inevitable state of all of us, and of every other fallen person who has ever lived. The only real (or pertinent) question is, "Of whom or what am I a prisoner?"
Those locked-up by and in the Lord Jesus Christ are the freest people in the truest sense. Those who are "free to sin" are groveling miserable slaves of their own lust, flesh, and the devil himself. Let all true and regenerate church-men who are Christ's "prisoners" rejoice at being such happy "captives."
[Puritan quote of the day: "As there is in God enough to satisfy the whole soul, so trust carries the whole soul to God.” —Richard Sibbes, in, "The Soul's Conflict with Itself"]
