Wednesday, May 25, 2016

Getting Rid of the Stockholm Syndrome

UV 1674/10000 Getting Rid of the Spiritual Stockholm Syndrome
And the ransomed of the LORD shall return, and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads: they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.
Isaiah 35 v 10
Most of us human beings suffer from what is called the Stockholm syndrome of being in love with our captor. We have been so inured or used to living in captivity and bondage to the world and the enemy of our souls that we accept our lot and remain in continual mourning. We need to activate our sacred imagination to imagine we are captives in the custody of a powerful enemy, a hostile power who is much stronger than us. There is no escape from his clutches. At this point in time, Jesus comes and pays the ransom, the payment for our freedom, our total liberty in spirit, mind and body. He pays with death and blood since the Father Himself had set the price of freedom, the abundant life, eternal life to be absolute death and the blood shed willingly of a perfect sacrifice.
Faith is not fantasy but fact-based, history-based imagination. We are now set free from both the clutches of the enemy, set free from hamartia or tragic failing, set free from the need to pay for our own failings, set free from the threats, accusations, curses and power of the enemy. Only a person held in continual captivity in a dungeon knows the value of such freedom. The moment we realize this value, we will from that moment be filled with continual rejoicing. We are filled with hope, a sense of security since we have no fear that we will not be taken captive again.
The assurance of such amazing and awesome salvation fills us with joy and gratitude since we did not attain it by our efforts, our abstinence, our penance, our merits. Since we are now restored to an intimate relationship with our Redeemer and know He lives in us and with us, sorrows in the form of burdens, worries, fears, diseases, failures, scarcity, shortcomings, happenings will evaporate. Our lives and our emotions will no longer be “yo-yo” but “You-You”. He becames the locus of our existence. We live and move and have our being in Him. Our desires and needs are fulfilled in Him and by Him. We are not released and rehabilitated like convicted prisoners but redeemed like innocent victims. But no longer can we have the victim mentality and exhibit the Stockholm syndrome of being in love with the enemy and the fallen world but live as strangers and pilgrims in this world, children of God waiting to return to our permanent and eternal homes. While we wait to return home, we ought to command every fear, every worry, every negative thought, word and feeling to flee. Our temporary homes are redeemed. Our minds are redeemed. Our wills are redeemed. Our bodies are redeemed. Our relationships are redeemed. Sorrows and sighing are the visiting card of the enemy. We should reject these outright, telling him he has no part in our lives, even as Nehemiah told the foe of the Jerusalem wall building project, “You have no part or share with us.”
Prateep V Philip

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