Luke 13:11-13, “And, behold, there was a woman which had a spirit of infirmity eighteen years, and was bowed together, and could in no wise lift up herself. And when Jesus saw her, He called her to Him, and said unto her, 'Woman, thou art loosed from thine infirmity.' And He laid His hands on her and immediately she was made straight, and glorified God.”

My thoughts have been on a woman we don’t hear about very much but she means a lot to me. We don’t read anything she said, but it says that she glorified God.

Luke 13:16, Jesus said, “And ought not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan hath bound, lo, these eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the Sabbath day?”

Jesus said that Satan had bound her 18 years – she was a captive. Jesus must have known that she wanted help and that she believed, but she was still bowed down! I wonder if she’d given up hope? Jesus can deliver us from being a captive to anything – sin, relationships, the world, or to Satan! Sometimes we want to get free – other times we don’t - but Jesus can help us. There are things we can be captive to.

Burdens can weigh us down! Jesus said that His burden is light. We are to cast our care upon God. Sometimes, we just hang onto our burden because we don’t believe that Jesus can help us carry it, so we continue on. Satan can get us entangled in his web, which eventually becomes a chain. As we struggle, we just get more entangled. When we struggle in our own strength, it gets worse and worse. We might think, “It doesn’t really matter if I do this – God will forgive me!” Then maybe I think, “I can do it again!” Our conscience begins to get seared.

Our enemy is very cruel and subtle. He didn’t tell Eve the truth. He didn’t say, “Eat it but you’ll die,” or “You’ll feel guilty but go ahead and eat it.” No. He never says that! So Satan lies and is deceitful, and tries to destroy our hope.

Luke 8:14, “And that which fell among thorns are they, which, when they have heard, go forth, and are choked with cares and riches and pleasures of this life, and bring no fruit to perfection.” This tells us of another thing that is very dangerous. We can hear and love the Word of God, and feel encouraged and inspired to go out and get victory – but life is very busy! We can fall into a trap – get busy and we get weak. Cares of life can distract us and take priority. God’s Word can get choked out little by little. We want to get more riches. God is wanting fruit in our lives, but it has to be allowed to grow. If it is choked out, the fruit doesn’t mature and ripen. We can sometimes keep ourselves alive barely but really not produce fruit. At the end of life, we’ll be very disappointed if fruit is not there! It can even be good things – school, our job, or doing good works! Satan is very deceptive with that, too.

Jesus came to preach deliverance and liberty to the captive. It doesn’t matter what we’re captive to, we can get liberty! God can break chains. There’s nothing God can’t do for us. We can go from here free, and continue to be free, as we depend on Him.