Locked up in a cage

So today I did my community service at the Wylie Animal Shelter. It was from an offense I had back in January; thank God that I wont have to worry about doing that offense again (Minor in Consumption). Well I have been dreading doing community service, because I have always hated doing it. But as my friend David told me, everything we do, we must do for the glory of God, and give Him all of the glory. So as I was still dreading going to community service at 8am this morning, before I went and on the drive there, I prayed that God would reveal to me while I am there how am I going to glorify Him through this community service that I have had no desire to do.
So when I got there, I had to start by cleaning out the cats kennels. I am basically sort of allergic to cats, but I never had to sneeze, and my allergies never acted up! Well after we finished with the cats, we had to go over to the dogs area and start cleaning their kennels out and walking them. WELL as the animal control officer and I started walking down the walkway where you have cages on both sides of you that have dogs in basically each one, I started beginning to notice something, and this is where God revealed so much to me to the point of almost breaking down. As were walking down, I was barely listening to what the guy was saying, because all I was doing is focusing on these dogs who were barking very loud and jumping against the cage wanting to get out of the cage so bad and go for a walk- be free. Well in that very moment is when I related the dogs doing that to humans. We allow ourselves to get so caught up in sin, that we are eventually consumed by it;We are locked up by our sin. Not that these dogs did anything wrong to be in there, because this was a shelter for them, but the analogy is....As our sin is the lock to our cage, the padlock is the lock to the dogs being locked up. All these dogs want is freedom, and the only time they get freedom is when someone lets them out and allow them to become free for a moment. That is so relevant to God and us! As I was thinking about all of this, I pictured God walking down this hallway with many different cages (us locked up by our sin) on each side of Him, and as He walks down this hallway, he is at each one of our doors waiting for us to give Him our ALL; Not just the parts we want to, but EVERYTHING, and when we are so consumed by our sin, all we do is bark and bite at God when times are hard, we never seem to give Him the entirety of our lives and that is why our lives continue to suck, if we don't give our all to God. We must obey God in order that we receive full freedom! As the day continued on I had to walk each dog, by first opening their cage putting the leash on their collar, and going outside with them in the grass. After a couple of dogs I went through walking, I realized that the ones who just wanted to go crazy and be wild were only feeling that way for the minute of me trying to walk them, because they know once they were back in their cage life would be miserable without me. It's all they ever knew was to go back and forth from someone who walks them, then back into their cage. They werent REALLY at peace, and these were the ones I had to put back in their cage soon. Not that God puts us back in our cage(sin), but because of our stubbornness we continue to stray from God if we don't give Him our ALL and all of the glory when he does give us His freedom. When God gives us His freedom we need to not think about the cage (our sin) that we were once in, but rejoice in the fact that God has set us free. By thinking about our cage and allowing it to determine our present and future, it will eventually shift our backs toward God because that is what we are focusing rather than focusing on God, and how He has instantly saved us! The dogs who were content and just wanted to play and be happy that they were free, just wanted to jump on me and look into my eyes, and some just wanted to start running around the building to rejoice that I have saved them from their cage. So for those dogs, I would allow them to and would run with them and stay by their side, because they were completely thankful, and they trusted and obeyed me and they gave me their all, they didn't make me struggle with trying to walk them or anything-they simply obeyed their master in command. Another note that I focused on, is this one labrador who you could tell was severely upset and would NOT stop barking and you could tell by this labs face that he was so angry. He was so angry at the fact that he was locked up in his cage, and when I saw how this lab was I was amazed, because I have never seen a lab so upset or angry- they are usually sweet dogs. Well when I saw that, I thought to my mind, this is like how people/friends we see in our lives who you would never think would fall into some of the sin that they have fallen in to and their life is completely locked up in a cage by their sin and you would never expect that, but over time some people change and fall into traps, and because the sin is roaring in their lives, there is simply nothing that we can do but trust in God and pray for this person who we see in our lives that becomes like that, because we know that God is in complete control and know that everything is in God's timing and not ours; we can't expect the change in someone to happen over night-it simply doesn't work that way. Just as when we become comletely free in God and when He saves us, we must obey God and keep our eyes gazed on God's glory and mercy, because if we don't that is when it will feel as if God is not by our side, and when it comes down to it--in the end we are only giving grief to ourselves. And sometimes when we are doing so great with God, He steps away from us for a moment to see if we can handle it, that is to see if we truly have Faith that He will set us free in the end, as long as we keep our eyes gazed on the horizon where God waits.

Matthew 28:19-20
Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."
God is there to the very end!!