By AMANDA ACKERMAN

Cast all of your cares upon Him because He cares for you! 1 Peter 5:7. How many times have you heard that scripture? It may be that you have heard that over and over many times but for some of us it may be the first time. Friends, no matter how often you hear it, the question is, have you applied it? Do you know it? Do you use it? Do you have faith in it? Your anxiety, your fears, your restlessness, or whatever demon you are facing, it is junk! Satan would rather have you bound up in chains and shackles over junk than anything else in the world. He knows if he can bind God’s children up, they become ineffective. They become bound in some kind of chain! Let me tell you about chains. “C” stands for compromise. It is anything that compromises your Christian walk and your faith! “H” stands for habits. These are unhealthy daily hindrances that keep you from where you want to be in Christ. “A” stands for addictions, anything that replaces Christ in your heart so that it keeps you from surrendering 100 percent to Him. “I” stands for indulgences. These are sinful things that make us feel good, for example, junk food, junk TV, junk music etc. You get the picture. “N” stands for negativity! Chaos! Hatred! Bitterness! It looks for optimum opportunities for oppression. It is what I call the triple Ooo syndrome. Ooo, it hurts, Ooo, I’m not going to make it, Ooo, life is too big, I don’t know what to do! What we are really saying when we feed into that is Ooo, God, ain’t big enough! (Ooo Yes, my friend! HE IS) “S” is all about selfishness, all about me, so much to the point that I place my needs and wants before God’s plan. For example, our checkbooks, our spending habits, these are choices we make daily.

Junk will eventually do one of two things in our lives. It will either keep us jailed up on the inside or bring some joy.

This is what I mean when I say joy.

Joy, comes from freedom in falling. When God breaks those chains off of you, there is FREEDOM! Freedom stands for Forgiveness, John 3:16, Restoration, Joel 2:24-26, Emerged in God’s Love, Embraced in His Presence, Delivered into His Power, Overflowing with His Spirit, Made over, 2 Corinthians 5:17.

Friends, YOU MATTER! YOU MATTER TO GOD! YOU MATTER TO THIS COMMUNITY! Do not let the devil bind you up in junk any longer. Yes, it is a process that sometimes takes longer than others to get rid of. But as soon as you get the junk dumped, the sooner satan fails to have you bound up and then GOD WILL turn your junk into HIS JOY.

Guest columnist Amanda Ackerman is a women’s ministry leader and speaker from Luverne.