In Their Shoes
Hebrews 13:3 KJV
(3) Remember them that are in bonds, as bound with them; and them which suffer adversity, as being yourselves also in the body.
So what good does it do to put yourself in their shoes? How does it help to envision yourself in the position of someone going through great difficulty and opposition? Would it not just make you a bit depressed and overwhelmed yourself?
Whether or not they deserve to be in the situation they’re in, there is an incredible possibility and opportunity in Christ for them to experience freedom, deliverance and breakthrough in their life. They may have committed some heinous act for which they’ve received an extensive sentence. Their opposition may be the result of their own errant choices of action. The greater their failure and guilt, though, the more difficult it will be to get past the invisible wall of their own negative thoughts and feelings for self. As long as they cannot see themselves anywhere else but in their own shoes, they will remain right there, walking around in them. Even if they were to be shown mercy and reprieve for a period of time, there will be an eventual return to that set of shoes they feel they deserve.
This is where remembering them as if you were there in their shoes can make a significant and essential difference. When you are convinced of your own position in Christ and the power and freedom that is yours in him, to take a position in the bound one’s shoes brings a change-enabling perspective to a hopeless situation. Positioning yourself right there with them should awaken an otherwise dormant compassion to affect change with the application of your own resources of righteousness and right standing. To imagine yourself experiencing their discomfort and depression will bring the required motivation for effectual prayer that can see the way to deliverance and victory. It may be true that for some there would be an unproductive weight taken on in empathizing with their plight, but for the one who is fully ensconced in their own position in Christ, this will be seen as an incredible opportunity to apply resurrection power to a place where death has taken a foothold.
I’m so glad that this very thing took place for us when the very Son of God chose to walk in our shoes and experience our pain and adversity, not so that He could just be brought down by it, but so that He could affect a change and a way out to the light of freedom and deliverance. He identified with all we were so that His righteousness and His perfection could transform our prison garb into garments of righteousness. Given His life and His identity, we’ve also been given His compassion- the ability to bring this overcoming perspective into the most challenging circumstance with a faith filled prayer for the answer in Him. We’ve been enabled. Now may we identify and enable in turn.
