Untethered

All they knew was that they were to protect the tree they were tethered to. I listened as the group of young people described what they had learned from the game they had played the night before. One girl spoke and said that she finally realized that she wasn't really protecting the tree she was protecting the rope that bound her. Once she realized she was being held captive she was able to be set free.

I've been thinking about that picture of protecting the thing that binds you. I realize that I do that too. There are some sins that are pet sins. The Scripture says that there can be pleasure in sin for a short time. Just enough time for the enemy of my soul to bind me. Often I don't even recognize that I have lost my freedom and I will fight for the right to be a slave.

Unforgiveness can keep me captive as well. I find when I choose to not forgive someone that I become bound to the offense. I have a hard time not thinking about the wrong that has been done to me. I become a prisoner in my thoughts and my mind goes involuntarily back to the person who wronged me.

Then there is also the binding power of anxiety. How can I know what freedom feels like if I am tied to the things over which I have no control? I've heard people say that they felt that if they worried about something then it wouldn't happen. I think if I did that I would forever be held captive to negative thinking.

Lord, I want to be free! I don't want to be bound by my sins, my forgiving heart, or by fear. Your word says, "So if the Son sets you free, you are free indeed." (John 8:36) Thank You for doing for me what I could not do for myself. Help me to walk in the freedom You have given me.