Passion: The Essential Collection DevotionalSample

“Amazing Grace (My Chains Are Gone)” Devotion
Passion feat. Chris Tomlin

My chains are gone / I’ve been set free / My God, My Savior has
ransomed me

We have a love/hate relationship with grace. We’re quick to receive it, but hesitant to give it out. We’re good at holding grudges and keeping score. Yet, we’re so relieved when we stop to remember that God keeps no record of wrongs. We would do well to follow His lead.

Christ died for our sins, and the moment we accept Him as Lord over our lives, we gain His freedom, and He begins the often painful process of shaping us into someone altogether new—someone who looks like His son. However, even after we invite Jesus into our hearts, we live as through we are still slaves. Old habits die hard, and it’s so easy to fall back into routines we thought were in the rear-view mirror of our journeys. Thankfully, that’s what grace is for.

Like a flood His mercy rains / Unending love, amazing grace

Galatians 5:1 (The Message) says, “Christ has set us free to live a free life. So take your stand! Never again let anyone put a harness of slavery on you.” Our culture wants us to be a slave to things that keep us from doing effective Kingdom work, binding us with chains of greed, jealousy, comparison and selfishness.

Far too often we fail to realize we’ve inadvertently become slaves to other people’s opinions. How many of us are slaves to our careers, climbing the ladder but never fully reaching the top? Sadly, it also seems our society has become a slave to social media, allowing Facebook and Instagram to rule our time, our thoughts and our relationships.

Not only did Christ take our sin upon Himself so that we can have eternal life, but He died for us so that we can experience life fully and abundantly right now. He wants us to live as free people. That’s His greatest hope for us.

God is quick to forgive when we ask, and He will continue freeing us from the things that bind us on a daily basis. He is in the business of breaking every chain — the chains of fear, addiction, unforgiveness, jealousy, anything that’s hindering us from becoming all He’s called us to be.

Mark 10:45 (NIV) reminds us, “For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

Amazing grace, how sweet the sound.

By Lindsay Williams