Ties That Bind

Breaking the Twine--an excerpt from Do Hard Things by Alex & Brett Harris

"Remember our elephant in India, shackled by nothing but a piece of twine & a wooden post in the ground? What's going on there? Why doesn't he just break free? The strength is there. Why doesn't he use it?

Here's how it works. When the elephant is still young, his owner takes him from his mother & shackles him to a large tree--with a heavy chain around his right hind leg. For days & weeks, the young elephant will strain & pull, trying to break free, but all he succeeds in doing is causing the shackle to cut deep into his leg. Eventually he gives up & accepts the idea that he can't go anywhere when there is something around his right leg.

Soon the owner can replace the tree with a post & the chain with a piece of twine. Once the elephant feels resistance, he stops. There's nothing but a piece of twine around his ankle, but there are heavy shackles around his mind."

How many times are we the elephant & allow sin to be the twine? We believe the lies the enemy tells us that keep us from walking closer with Christ. Often they are tiny little secrets we think about ourselves; I'm not good enough, I'm dumb, I'm ugly, I'm not funny, people really don't like me that much they just fake it, etc. Maybe someone has said something to us in passing. Something that wasn't necessarily meant to be hurtful we allow to take root. What does the devil do with that? He takes full advantage of the situation. He will build on that tiny comment & keep us second guessing ourselves & doubting our relationship with Christ in the process. I know for me it happens before I even know it. In 2 Timothy 2:25-26 Paul states, "Those who oppose him he must gently instruct, in the hope that God will grant them repentance leading them to a knowledge of the truth, and that they will come to their senses and escape from the trap of the devil, who has taken them captive to do his will." Satan can turn a piece of twine into a heavy shackle in our minds.

One of the biggest lies we believe is that I have strayed too far. I have separated myself too much from Christ to be able to just go back "home". What we have to realize is that in the instant that Christ became sin he paid our debt!!! That is past, present, & future debt. In a moment He became every ounce of sin that ever was or would be & He paid the price in full. We don't nor will we ever have that capability. He did what we could never even fathom. In Psalm 49:7-8 we read, "No man can redeem the life of another or give to God a ransom for him--the ransom for a life is costly, no payment is ever enough-".

So let me encourage my brothers & sisters, don't buy the lie!!! Christ has paid the ransom for us & no power of hell, no scheme of man can ever pluck us from His hand. We are one with Christ & Satan has no power in our family.