How do you understand our God when it comes to seemingly contradicting messages?  When it comes to God there is one thing you can trust.  He is God and He is who He says He is.  You are human and you have struggles grasping what He says.

As a mother of a son who is captive, my heart always alerts to God’s promises as in Lamentations 3:34-36:  “To crush underfoot all the prisoners of the earth, to deny a man justice in the presence of the Most High, to subvert a man in his lawsuit, the Lord does not approve.”  I love verses like these.  I find hope in them for myself and my son.  It fuels my faith and prayer.  It even gets personal in Isaiah 49:25: “For thus says the Lord: ‘Even the captives of the mighty shall be taken, and the prey of the tyrant be rescued, for I will contend with those who contend with you, and I will save your children.”  That verse has been highlighted in my bible since 2018 for all my children. 

So…I come up to Revelation 13:10 in my devotional reading.  “If anyone is to be taken captive, to captivity he goes; if anyone is to be slain with the sword, with the sword must he be slain.  Here is a call for the endurance and faith of the saints.”  Um…what does that mean to all the faith I’ve been putting into God’s promises in Lamentations and Isaiah and other scriptures?

I find the answer in the end of that verse.  “Here is a call for the endurance and faith of the saints.”  I’m so grateful for that affirmation and inspiration.  I do have faith even though I see no hope of the end of the captivity of my son.  I will work and pray towards it forever.  I believe that God will save my child and that He will contend with those who contend with me…but it may not be in the timing and in the way that I understand or can accept.  That’s why I need endurance and faith. 

Captivity is a reality in a sinful world.  Do you know where no captivity exists?  We will be totally free in heaven.  Galatians 5:1 says: “For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.”   How do you live free of captivity whilst being held captive on earth?  It requires endurance and faith.

As we live in captivity, our souls intuitively know it is wrong.  What sets us apart from all creation is that we were given a free-will to express our authority over heaven and earth.  Indeed, that is why our enemy satan is so active in deceiving, pursuing and tormenting us humans.  He is attempting to gain his authority over earth by controlling the humans God gave authority over earth.  Enduring captivity is not easy, that is why it is called endurance.  We are not meant to be in captivity, so we need to endure.  Endure until when?  Endure until heaven when it is all made right.

We can endure because we have faith.  It takes faith to endure.  My heart longs for freedom.  God created that longing inside of me.  God is for freedom.  God will bring freedom ultimately.  In the between time, I will endure with faith.  That is how I live with contradicting messages.