{"id":1701,"date":"2010-01-30T00:38:23","date_gmt":"2010-01-30T06:38:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wnac.org\/twg\/?p=1701"},"modified":"2010-01-24T06:42:01","modified_gmt":"2010-01-24T12:42:01","slug":"chains","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wnac.org\/twg\/?p=1701","title":{"rendered":"Chains"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Chains<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cIf only you would prepare your heart and lift up your hands to him in prayer! Get rid of your sins, and leave all iniquity behind you. Then your face will brighten with innocence. You will be <strong>strong<\/strong> and <strong>free of fear<\/strong>. You will forget your misery; it will be like water flowing away. Your life will be brighter than the noonday. Even darkness will be as bright as morning. Having <strong>hope<\/strong> will give you courage. You will be <strong>protected <\/strong>and <strong>rest<\/strong> in safety. You will lie down <strong>unafraid<\/strong>, and many will look to you for help\u201d <\/em>(Job 11:13-19\u00a0 NLT).<\/p>\n<p>There is much to be said for letting go of the past.\u00a0 This is one of the most beautiful portions of Scripture I have come across in my reading because it so clearly points to the connection between sin, regret, humility, forgiveness, and healing.\u00a0 In this chapter, Zophar, one of Job\u2019s friends, is pretty much rebuking him and telling him what he needs to do to make himself right with God again, and in the end Zophar himself is rebuked by God.\u00a0 I believe that \u201call truth is God\u2019s truth,\u201d and just because Zophar was out of line may not mean he was completely wrong.\u00a0 Even the Psalmist says that God desires a broken and contrite spirit rather than other kinds of sacrifice.\u00a0\u00a0 I put some of the keywords in <strong>bold <\/strong>so that the message is a little bit more intense.\u00a0 This small section reminds me of <em>The Pilgrim\u2019s Progress,<\/em>\u201dwhen Christian\u2019s load finally tumbles off his back and down the hill as he reaches the foot of the cross.\u00a0 There is certainly great power in \u201cletting go.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Karyn Pugh<br \/>\nTennessee<\/p>\n<p><strong>PRAY TOGETHER: <\/strong>Continue praying for home missionaries who are searching for good, affordable meeting facilities.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Chains \u201cIf only you would prepare your heart and lift up your hands to him in prayer! Get rid of your sins, and leave all iniquity behind you. Then your face will brighten with innocence. You will be strong and &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/wnac.org\/twg\/?p=1701\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1701","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-daily-devotional"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wnac.org\/twg\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1701","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wnac.org\/twg\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wnac.org\/twg\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wnac.org\/twg\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wnac.org\/twg\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1701"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wnac.org\/twg\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1701\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1702,"href":"https:\/\/wnac.org\/twg\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1701\/revisions\/1702"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wnac.org\/twg\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1701"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wnac.org\/twg\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1701"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wnac.org\/twg\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1701"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}