My Story

By Norma Miller

May 1, 2023

Imagine a cage. A cage filled with cobwebs and fog. You know there is light…somewhere, but you simply cannot…in spite of all your best efforts to fix it, find the light. You climb and you claw only to find yourself right back where you were.

Only a few short years ago, that is where I was. I fought with all my might and mane to escape my prison, but I kept coming right back to where I was. The issue is - I didn’t know what my prison was. I thought if I did all the right things, I would fix my life, and I would get out of my cage. But when you believe your cage is one thing and it’s actually another, are you going to get free?

What is your prison? Is it your mindset? Is it your beliefs?

I would like to share with you a simple truth. Your prison will ALWAYS be made up of lies and fears. Every time.

The lies we believe keep us bound. You can believe something is perfectly safe, all while giving power over to it. For example: A little match seems harmless enough, doesn’t it? And striking it and watching it burn isn’t scary. But if you drop it into a little pile of hay in the barn, it becomes a whole different story. If you believe it is harmless and you mess with it, you can fall prey to this lie and create a massive havoc.

In the same way, lies that we believe about life and relationships can tie us up to the devil for long, wasted years. What lies do you believe?

Our fears also keep us bound. Have you ever heard the saying, “Everything you want is on the other side of fear?” Now, this can be taken the wrong way and cause us to keep grasping for wants and wishes. We are not talking about that here. We are talking about the things we know deep down, or things that we meant to be part of our lives, perhaps our calling, but we are too afraid to do anything that we have never done before. So we stay stuck, right where we are, and we watch with envy those who have been set free of our own limiting mindsets. What are you afraid of?

What is God calling you to that you are afraid of? What do you believe that is untrue and that is keeping you frozen in time while life passes you by?

My own cage was actually the cage of abuse. I stayed stuck in denial for a long, long time. It hurt too much to realize that what I believed to be true was actually not…that the one I believed was safe was actually the enemy…that if I wanted to be free, I had to set some pretty strong boundaries. I think the hardest thing to accept was that I could not fix it, even if I did all the right things. We can never force others to do what is right. The choice is theirs. We can do the right things and present them with choices, but ultimately the choice is theirs.

So in the end, I was faced with the lies I believed, my fears that kept me bound. I chose freedom. Even though getting free was the most painful, hardest, most grueling work I had ever done. I wanted freedom. I wanted out of that cage. And I found the light! I am no longer clawing or shaking off fog. The light is clear and beautiful! Through it all, I found God to be the most faithful, compassionate friend and provider, and I learned to know Him in a way I never would have otherwise.

“But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.”

(I Peter 2:9)

 

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