Shake Yourself from the Dust and Arise...

Shake yourself from the dust and arise; be seated, O Jerusalem; loose the bonds from your neck, O captive daughter of Zion.  Isaiah 52:2

How many of us wish we could shake off the dust of our sin. Not to feel the guilt and shame of in our lives, to feel free once again not to serve another master besides Christ. To sit up without the disgust that we may feel from the guilt we have been carrying around for many of years. To have our shackles of guilt removed which have imprison for so long, to be finally free from for being a captive to our sin.

Before we can do all that we need to remember that it is a choice God is giving us. We cannot do it without God's help and we can't do it without the help of others in our lives. We must develop trust in God and others. If you look at the verse you see God is commanding His people to take action, not to sit in the dust defeated and hopeless. He is calling them out of captivity, but not by their own strength, but by His awesome power.

Do we sit in our own dust and feel helpless and hopeless that things will never change. Do we ever cry out to God to help us, and take the measures that He has asked us to do? Or do we fill ourselves with self-pity believing that He will never call us out of Egypt. For me I have done that plenty of times. Not calling on the Lord for help, but wonder if things will ever get better. Usually they don't until I look for God to change them and to accept the help God has sent me. It may not be an overnight change or even an easy one. But God never said it would be easy or simple. We just need to look to Him and listen. Not to listen to all the negativity in our lives, but ask God to show you a way out. Then do the steps to resolve the problems in our lives, instead of looking for a quick fix.

The negativity is there for a reason. We need to look at it through God's eyes not our own. If we don’t look at those thoughts, and counter them with Scripture, they will plague us again and again. We need to work through them so they will not have power over our lives anymore. Write them down on paper and see them for what they are. Are they lies, or are they truth about us. If they are lies, we need to listen to God instead of our own self-defeating thoughts. But if they are true about us, we need to see what we need to do in changing. What do we need to confess to God, and to others whom we have harmed? If we do not face them they will haunt us. So take heart for He is with you and will not leave you in your pain. Trust that the Lord will see you through this and will remove the shackles from your heart.