Part 1: The Prison You Can’t Always See

You can hold down a job, provide for your family, lead in your church—and still feel locked up on the inside. And it’s not always obvious from the outside. Sometimes the most bound people are the ones who look like they’ve got it all together. That’s because invisible prisons don’t always look like failure. Sometimes they look like high-functioning fear.

You can be saved. You can be gifted, anointed even. You can have the call of God on your life, show up every day doing what you’re supposed to do—serving, leading, producing, pouring out for others—and still be quietly falling apart on the inside.

Recognizing Invisible Chains

You can quote Scripture and still be struggling with thoughts that wear you out before the day even begins. You can know you’re chosen and still wrestle with wounds you never really sat with long enough to heal. And let’s be honest—some of us are carrying around pressure like its oxygen. It never lets up. It doesn’t clock out. It just sits on your chest, day after day, like a weight you’ve learned to live under.

Let’s be real. If we don’t let God into the deep stuff—the under-the-surface, behind-the-smile, “nobody knows but me” stuff—we’ll keep performing while we’re still bleeding. Showing up, looking together, saying all the right things, but barely holding on inside. Too many of us are stuck in that cycle. We’re busy, we’re committed, we’re “blessed and highly favored”—but deep down, we’re tired, we’re triggered, and we’re carrying pain we never really brought before our God.

Understand that God’s not just after your gift. He’s after your heart. The whole thing. The hidden parts. The raw parts. The part that still gets mad when you talk about it, and the part that cries in silence when nobody’s around. He’s not afraid of what you’re carrying. But He won’t force His way in. We have to be willing to stop hiding and let Him work with what’s real.

Jesus didn’t come to polish up your image. He came to set you free. John 10:10 (NLT) says, “The thief’s purpose is to steal and kill and destroy. My purpose is to give them a rich and satisfying life.” And let’s be honest—some of us aren’t living satisfied. We’re living stretched, stressed, numb, or disconnected. But that’s not what He promised. The good life starts when we stop pretending and give Him access to the stuff we’d rather keep buried. That’s where the healing is. That’s where freedom begins.

Freedom Begins with God’s Truth
Jesus said in John 8:32 (NLT), “And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” This kind of freedom doesn’t come from just hearing the truth. We have to know it—in the belly of our knowing. This means truly believing in the freedom Jesus offers, acknowledging that it breaks all chains.

Maybe your chains are shame. Maybe it’s fear—fear of not being enough, fear of being rejected if people saw the real you. Maybe it’s the echo of a harsh word spoken over you years ago, or it could be the deafening silence of something loving that was never said at all. Time alone doesn’t heal that. That’s soul-level stuff. And that takes Holy Spirit surgery.

We have to trust that the Spirit can pierce through the layers we’ve built to protect ourselves. And while he’s bringing healing and clarity, we can’t sit idly by; we’re participates in the healing process. Our role is to seek God through His Word, to allow His truth to minister to our hearts and minds as only it can. His truth is powerful, life-giving, and life-restoring. It frees us, and that kind of freedom begins when we’re willing to face the truth about what we’re carrying, and how long we’ve been carrying it. Sure, most of us have learned to function while we’re broken—we’ve mastered the art of smiling while we’re crying inside. But living that way is living beneath our privilege. It’s living beneath the more than abundant reality that Jesus Christ sacrificed his life to give us.

God doesn’t shame us for what’s broken. He knew about our battles long before we were born. Nothing about us is hidden from Him. If we will trust Him, He will bind up what’s been bleeding. Isaiah 61:1 (NLT) says, “He has sent me to comfort the brokenhearted and to proclaim that captives will be released and prisoners will be freed.” That includes you. That includes the silent battles, the internal wars, and the emotional prisons nobody else sees.

God Isn’t Afraid of Your Pain

What’s broken in you doesn’t scare Him. The quiet suffering you’ve been living with—He already knows. And He already made provision for your freedom. But it starts with your “yes.” Not to more activity. Not to trying harder. But to surrender. To being real with yourself and honest with God.

Prayer

Dear Heavenly Father,
I’ve been living with things that I haven’t talked about. You see the weight I carry—the thoughts, the fear, the pain I’ve buried. And today, I want to stop pretending. I want to be whole, not just functional. I want to be free, not just busy. Break every chain that’s kept me from living the life You promised. Heal the places in me I’ve hidden from the world. Please forgive me for my sins and help me to receive the truth of who You say I am. Help me to trust You with the broken parts I’ve tried to manage alone. In the precious name of Jesus Christ, I pray, Amen.

Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.

“Released – Breaking Free from the Things That Bind Us-Part 1: The Prison You Can’t Always See”, written for Springfield Fellowship © 2025. All rights reserved. All praise and honor to God through Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.