Look about you and you will see and hear the sighing of many prisoners; prisoners of physical affliction, of unfair treatment and abuse, of unfulfilled ambitions; prisoners of adversity and poverty; prisoners of racial prejudice.
Columnist John R. Gunn writes that, "Life is filled with such prisoners, souls and fetters looking before and after and pining for what is not. And strange as it may seem, there are also prisoners of prosperity; truly prosperity tends to encage the soul, it can easily and readily enslave a man. Wealth is dangerous to possess because of its tendency to possess us."
But all of these types of prisoners are yet prisoners of hope. Turn you to the stronghold ye prisoners of hope. Even today do I declare that I will render double unto thee. This is Heaven's message to all of Earth's captive children. I am sent, says Christ, to preach the Gospel to the poor; to heal the broken hearted; to deliver the captives; to set at liberty the bruised; to undo the heavy burdens; to let the oppressed go free.
Christ is the great emancipator, the door of hope to all those in custody. Are you one of those in custody? Are you oppressed by adversity; lashed to heavy burdens, restricted by environment, by racial prejudice? Have you been bruised by affliction? Has prosperity fettered you with its golden shackles? Has sin made you its bond slave? Do you sigh for deliverance? Then remember that you are a prisoner of hope. There are no prison doors that He cannot open. No sighing prisoners that He cannot set free. Surrender all to Christ and He will turn your sighing into a song of liberty.