TRAPPED By Sally I. Kennedy

Who is it that overcomes the world? Only he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God. 1 John 5:5

You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. 1 John 4:4

It was irresistable. Too warm and sunny, too lovely an afternoon to not take a few minutes to sit outside on the back porch where we were staying. I moved the rocker over to get a better view of the moss-covered towering oaks. Ah, this was good.

A cat crawled into a space under the house. Bees busied themselves around a clematis vine. I heard a faint buzzing. Another mosquito? Thought I’d cleared out the corner of the porch of those pesky critters.

The hum persisted. Turning around, I spied a glint of green. Near the sliding door was a glass bottle. It looked antique-y. The glass stopper had a green bee, or fly perched ontop.

I picked it up, an saw that there were legs about ½ inch high to keep the bottle barely off the ground. It also had a fake bottom - a large hole with a lip around the inside of it. Inside were a couple dead flies, and another flying frantically around the top trying to get out.

Apparently the insects entered from underneath. They could leave the same way they came in, but it looked as if for some reason they didn’t do that. They would continue towards the stopper, which was a dead end.

Sometimes we feeled trapped. We try and escape pressures of the world, panic or just give up from the stress, yet sometimes the way out is available. Jesus overcame the world and all its trappings (John 16:33*) and He has told us that we can too.

We are more than conquerors in Christ (Romans 8:37**). Our Saviour rose from the dead and transcended circumstances; we can too b/c our lives are hidden IN Him (Colossians 3:1-3***).

Let’s start living out the truth, above our circumstances. We are not trapped. We are more than conquerors in Him who gave His life for us and saved us.

This is good news!