Last Wednesday on returning from the gym, my wife and her friends were stuck into a bottle of red wine and conversation. I would love to say that I joined in on the wine but I resisted the temptation and stayed for a little conversation. The usual topics were coming up and then the most current topic came up “the state of the nation”……..

One of my wife’s friends, Catherine, a highly educated woman happen to mention that she happened to feel like a slave, but was quickly shot down by the rest of the group.  Remaining quiet, I thought about this for a while and feel that she actually had a point. After a deep breath, I thought I would share my somewhat limited male thinking on the slave comment….

The point Catherine made to back up her argument was “I feel like a slave every time I put petrol in my car”, the response from the rest was “if you have petrol in your car you can go wherever you want”.  Catherine agreed and added, “Yes as long as the oil company supplied oil to Ireland”. Great point I thought, and played on my mind the next day.

So the question I ask you, “Are you a Slave?”

So what is like to be a slave? When a person is a slave, they will face 4 major battles in their life’s

1. Very few results or no results at all in their life
2. A life of unfulfilled dreams
3. Constantly physically and emotionally exhausted
4. Few or no prospects in their future.

Are you feeling or experiencing any of these symptoms in your life today. You can scream it out if you like; I am not a slave………..

But if your living in Ireland, chances are you most certainly are, you just haven’t realised yet. You have become and economic slave that is affecting your everyday life. Have a little thought about this the next time you put petrol in your car:

Who are we dependent on for oil?

Who has just pumped 85 billion into the country?

Who have we bailed out with our taxes?

As with the oil, we don’t control it, it controls us. We are slaves while others get to call the shots!!!

Here is something for you to mull on in these times:

More and more people in our communities, towns & villages are scared by the economic difficulties and chaos. More & more people are losing their jobs, losing their homes, while others are trying to survive in these difficult times.

Let me ask you, “Do you thinks people will begin to realise they need something bigger than themselves? Do you think that these same people who forgot about God in the Celtic Tiger years may just be looking for him in these recessionary times?”…..

It is during these times of fear & anxiety that God will raise up men & women He can use.

“Are You One of Them?”. Look around you, do you see someone who is calm, someone who is not scared? Someone who is not confused at a time like this, someone who has an insight into all that is going on around them?”

I urge you to “Be Strong in the Lord, in the power of his might”. Do not be carried away in these times. Stop doing things because everyone else is doing them. Look at your own principles, is it time to revise them? Are you ready to firm for them, to suffer for them?

The person who can face their battles and remain calm in these days of economic turmoil is the person God will use to point others to Jesus Christ. And if Jesus is in your heart, if His principles are your principles, then You are not a Slave……

 

Jesus said to him, I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life; no one comes to the Father but by Me. …….John 14:6