Amos 5: 4
Have you heard of contronyms? Those are rare words in English that have two contradictory meanings; in other words, the word itself is its own opposite. Here are a few examples:
Bolt - to secure, or to flee
Dust - to add fine particles, or to remove them
Fast - quick, or stuck or made stable
Left - remained, or departed
Weather - to withstand, or to wear away
Bound is such a word. It means both heading to a destination, or restrained from movement.
As I reach the last week of my blog series extracted from my new book, "Live Like You're Loved," I've been thinking about how so much of the book is about "bound," in both of its meanings. The question I pose here for each of the four main areas of "Live Like You're Loved" is "Where are you bound?" In other words, where are you heading to a destination, or where are you restrained from movement?
Live Like You're Loved - Are you bound up in a negative self-image that doesn't believe in God's love? Where are you bound and weighed down by baggage like worry, anger, bad habits, addictions?
Live Like You're Forgiven - How are you bound by your guilt? Are you bound (headed) to forgive others as you've been forgiven, or do you have some work to do?
Live Like You're Sent - Where are you bound for today? How are you commonly sent and personally sent into the world, and how are you listening to the Holy Spirit in order to know?
Live Like You're Eternal - Are you bound and determined to seek God and live? (Amos 5: 4 - "Seek me and live.") Are you bound to God? Are you bound for eternal life with God?
There is a lot of richness and meaning to that word, bound!
The subtitle of my book is "Living in the Freedom and Immediacy of God's Love." We can be bound up by many things, by our baggage, by our shame - and that is not God's doing. The key message of the book and video study is that God's desire is for us to live freely by basking in His love and letting that love permeate every aspect of our lives. When we do that, we find that we are living in His kingdom and more readily doing the things on earth that He wants us to do.
Today, please think about how God loves you, even you; how God wants you to live in the freedom and immediacy of His love, and what that means; and how God wants you to be on a never-ending journey with Him. Think about how to break the chains that bind you and keep you away from this love, and think about how to bind yourself to God, now and forever.
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