Do you remember the first time you tried to tame an elephant? The fear you had and the strong will of the elephant did not pair up too well. How many days did it take you to even train him not to run from you? You thought it would always fear you, until the day the elephant finally started eating out of your hand, and then you realized what a beautiful friendship this would be. Honestly, I doubt anyone reading this has ever trained an elephant. Most of us probably have never even touched one, much less trained one. It is hard enough for me to train a 5 pound weenie dog, much less a multi ton beast.
Although training an elephant is not something I will ever do, it is an interesting way to train nonetheless. To train an elephant, the trainer will drive a huge stake in the ground, and use chains that the elephant cannot break. At first the elephant will struggle, but eventually it will realize that it is pointless, and will decide to just stay where it is. Now that the elephant has accepted the fact that it is stuck, the big chains are no longer needed. You can then just drive a small stake in the ground, and tie a small chain to the elephant's leg. It just assumes that the chain is the unbreakable one and does not even try to leave. It free to go, but stays willingly a captive of its captor.
We are just like this elephant when it comes to our past sin. At one time we were prisoners to our sins, but then came Jesus. He died on the cross, for your sins and mine, and thus doing so, He set us free. Like the elephant, we too once had shackles on our ankles. Shackles not tied to a stake or a pole, but tied to the sin in our life. When you turned to Jesus, He reached down and unlocked those shackles from around your ankles. Although He unlocked them, he did not take your legs out of them. Instead of fleeing our unlocked shackles, we just stay in them and mope around saying "Woe is me", or we feel as though our sin is still keeping us prisoner.
Many look at their past and refuse to let it go because they feel that God will not forgive what they did or that they must remain a prisoner to their sin. Friends, let me tell you that if you have confessed your sins to God, trust in Jesus, and are covered by the blood of the Lamb, then you are set free. When God forgave your sins, he forgave all of them. Not some, but ALL of them. There is not a single thing you could have done that can not be washed away by the blood that was shed on the cross at Calvary. It may have been lying, stealing, or even rape or murder. Whatever it is God, will forgive you and set you free if you let Him.
You must decide that you are no longer going to be a prisoner of your past. God has made your sin as far away as the east is from the west. Satan will try time and time again to use your past against you, but all you have to do is flee. If today you still feel as though you are a prisoner to your sin, even though you are a child of God, then I urge you to take a look at that shackle around your ankle. If you look closely, you will see that yes, it is still there, but it is wide open, just waiting for you to walk away from it. If you do come to that conclusion, and are ready to leave your sin behind, don't just walk out of your shackles, but instead run out of them. The Bible does not tell us to hang around sin and hope it goes away, no, it tells us to flee it.
Now don't get me wrong, if you have sinned, there are still lingering consequences, but even while suffering the consequences of sin, one can take joy in knowing that the guilt of that sin has been taken from them. Again, if you are feeling guilty or trapped by sin that you have repented of, then make the decision that today is the day you let that sin know that it no longer has power over you and that Satan can no longer use that sin against you. Oh Satan will try; he will say "Oh, you want to serve God do you, well what about this sin you committed?" Instead of saying "Yeah, you're right," just respond with "What sin? Mine is at the bottom of the ocean floor, never to be seen again." We have been forgiven, and it is high time we start acting like it and stop letting our past hold us back. Yes, I have a past, and it is one that I am not proud of, but it is one that by the grace of God I am forgiven of.
When it comes to sin, as a believer in Christ, we have freedom, but as always, with freedom comes responsibility. We can't just say "Oh I‘m free", and run around like a spoiled kid in a candy store. No, we must be responsible with it. If you have this freedom, you are an ambassador to the Kingdom of God, and as such you have a responsibility.
A responsibility to witness, both verbally and through action.
A responsibility to strive to live a pure and holy life.
A responsibility to offer this same forgiveness to others that have sinned against you.
A responsibility to obey His word without compromise.
A responsibility to love one another as Christ loved us.
We have been given this freedom as a gift and we must stop treating it like it is something we were owed. The only thing we are owed would be God's wrath and judgment, but praise God, He decided to pour His blood out upon a cross, instead of pouring His wrath out upon us.
God Bless You
Chad Patterson |
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