As you recall, in session 1, Lauren talked about Psalms 107 being a Call to Worship.
Session 2 took us into desert places using the story of the Samaritan woman as told in John chapter 4.
In this session, Lauren talks about our chains. Psalms 107:10-16
"Some sat in darkness and in the shadow of death, prisoners in affliction and in irons, for they had rebelled against the words of God, and spurned the counsel of the Most High. So he bowed their hearts down with hard labor; they fell down, with none to help. Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble, and he delivered them from their distress. He brought them out of darkness and the shadow of death, and burst their bonds apart. Let them thank the Lord for his steadfast love, for his wondrous works to the children of man! For he shatters the doors of bronze and cuts in two the bars of iron".
Lauren says that before we were believers, we wore the chains of rebellion and unbelief. As believers, we can still wear our chains, but Jesus shines his light on those chains we may wear so He can break them.
Our chains weigh us down. By not repenting of them, we become a slave to them.
Lauren then gives her personal "good Christian girl" story.
In college, she felt her chains and became "bowed down with hard labor". In leading worship and singing, she wanted validation and significance. She was an achiever. This became a prison to her. It owned her.
Her thought was "if I can achieve this thing, then I'm good enough". Instead, she felt enslaved.
Lauren said she had to finally come to the end of herself and say "I can't do this anymore. I don't want to be this kind of person anymore".
Many of us, Lauren said, have sin in our life and have mowed over it to make it look pretty, or gotten down on our hands and knees and tried to pull it out ourselves (a story she had told goes along with this analogy).
This is how she felt until she surrendered it completely to the Lord. The Lord had shown his light on her chains. It just took her admitting to it for freedom to come.
Her conclusion for us is that the Lord cares. He'll let us feel the weight of our chains as in Psalms 107:11, but He will shine His light and break every chain.
The invitation from Jesus is just to come as we are.
He delights in breaking our chains.
