Imprisoned to receive mercy

Romans 11:32

Galatians 3:21-29

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I stared incredulously at the calculations my university offered presenting on-campus dorm housing as being less expensive than off-campus options. According to them, anyone as strapped for cash as I was would be making a financially astute choice to commit themselves to living in a dorm. But I had already lived on my own for 4 years and knew my living costs were half what they were quoting me. They had a vested interest in my living on campus (their own profit) but I knew the truth and was able to see through the (intended or not, acceptable or not) deception.
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It is common these days to talk and act as if the Lord's desire is to keep locked up every possibility for joy and we must escape His bonds if we have any hope of happiness. Look at who really has a vested interest in our joy, however, and who has an interest in preventing us from attaining it. The Lord certainly doesn't; He created us out of love when He could have remained quite content without our existence. What He does have a vested interest in, is a good relationship with us, freeing us from sin, bestowing blessings upon us, increasing our joy. We were imprisoned in our sin, not so we could remain there, but so we could experience the full freedom and love of God's mercy.