{"id":774,"date":"2014-02-25T14:59:09","date_gmt":"2014-02-25T20:59:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ebcsv.com\/blog\/?p=774"},"modified":"2015-05-21T05:42:52","modified_gmt":"2015-05-21T10:42:52","slug":"chained-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ebcsv.com\/pa\/chained-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Chained"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Bound\"<\/i>\u201cThe chains of habit are to light to feel until they are to strong to break\u201d<\/h4>\n

Man is a habitual being.\u00a0 Part of our make up is that the longer we engage in behavior the more it becomes our nature.\u00a0 If you studied psychology you probably remember Pavlov\u2019s dogs.\u00a0 As part of an elaborate experiment on human nature he was able to manipulate a dogs response by continually using the same stimuli.\u00a0 Pavlov noticed that whenever a dog came to its food, as he was preparing the food it would salivate.\u00a0 He began to ring a bell every time he fed the dog.\u00a0 Soon he was able to make the dogs salivate even in the absence of food if he simply rang the same bell.\u00a0 Although man is a vastly superior creation than the dog, we nevertheless have a very similar mechanism in our brain.\u00a0If I repeat an action long enough it slowly will become \u201csecond nature\u201d to me.\u00a0 Thus if I re-enforce a thought repeatedly it will eventually become a habituated thought pattern.\u00a0 In our physical bodies we have both \u201cvoluntary\u201d and \u201cinvoluntary\u201d muscles.\u00a0 For me to move my arm and pick up a cup of coffee, I must mentally trigger the action.\u00a0 For my heart to beat or my lungs to breathe it requires no conscious thought.\u00a0 Thus even when I sleep, my mind tells my heart to beat.\u00a0 If it didn\u2019t, I\u2019d be in big trouble!\u00a0 In a similar way, many of our actions and thoughts are an outgrowth of habits we have formed during life.\u00a0 Thus in many ways the present is formed by the past and my future is dictated by these habitual responses.\u00a0 I can recognize this in many avenues of daily life.\u00a0 The first time I sit at a piano keyboard, I am clumsy and frustrated.\u00a0 However, the more I train myself the more easily I can maneuver my hands on the keys with great confidence.<\/p>\n

Think with me of some things you do every day that you do the same way without even planning to.\u00a0 For instance, every time you put on a pair of pants you put the same leg in first, you put the same sock on first and you put the same foot in a left or right shoe first.<\/p>\n

To do so, requires no planning on your part.\u00a0 In many ways our actions remind me of a rutted old mountain road.\u00a0 By erosion and continual traffic, a dirt road becomes rutted.\u00a0 These ruts are very difficult to stay out of when you drive up a dirt road.\u00a0 It seems you spend a lot of energy trying to steer the vehicle up out of the ruts.\u00a0 The longer the ruts are reinforced, the deeper they get.\u00a0 So in our life, the more we engage in sinful actions and thoughts, the more difficult it is to break free of them.<\/p>\n

Let me illustrate this way:\u00a0 If I had you sit in a chair and wrapped you in a piece of yarn one time, and then gave you a command to break free, you could do so very easily.\u00a0 If I had you sit in the same chair and wrapped you in the chair a half dozen times and then gave you the same command, you could probably again break free fairly easily.\u00a0 However, if I surrounded you in the chair a hundred times and then gave you the command to extricate yourself, you probably would find yourself hopelessly entangled.<\/p>\n

Thus it is with us!\u00a0 Many times we play with sin thinking it will never bind us and after one or two short dalliances with a sin that may be true.\u00a0 However, the more I engage the thought or the deed, the more I am becoming hopelessly bound.\u00a0 Maybe you\u2019ve heard the little adage: \u201cPractice makes perfect.\u201d\u00a0 This adage is actually wrong, practice doesn\u2019t make perfect\u2014it only makes permanent!\u00a0 Thus the more I practice a certain activity the more habituated I become and the more difficult it becomes to change.\u00a0 If I learn a golf swing wrongly, and I persevere in the wrong swing long enough, before I can learn to do it right, I must first unlearn my wrong method.<\/p>\n

When we analyze our sinful habits, it can be very discouraging to think that we can ever change.\u00a0 According to the world\u2019s paradigm, the only hope is for me to re program myself like Pavlov did with his dogs.\u00a0 Is that the Biblical solution?\u00a0 Thankfully it is not.\u00a0 God has not made self-discipline the major method in conquering sinful behavior.\u00a0 Once again, the Lord would turn us to the cross.\u00a0 In I Corinthians 1:18-31 the Lord points us to a vastly superior way of change.\u00a0 Thus a few chapters later in 6:9-12 Paul reminds us that although the wicked cannot inherit the Kingdom, every one in the Kingdom was once a vile, wicked sinner in the sight of God.\u00a0 However, in His grace, Christ has washed, sanctified and justified all those who believe in Him.\u00a0 Thus although the preaching of the cross is foolishness to the wise and learned of this world it is the only hope of those that are despised and base and nothing.\u00a0 Thus, as he says in Chapter 1 of I Corinthians, the wise and noble are excluded from the kingdom but the sinner is embraced by it!<\/p>\n

In chapter 6:12 Paul gives us a very important principle for living a successful Christian life.\u00a0 Although all things may be permissible for the believer, a diligent believer will not allow himself to be brought under the power of any outside influence.\u00a0 Thus a believer carefully guards his habits and his actions to be sure that he is not selling himself into slavery.\u00a0 Therefore, a conscientious believer may actually sometimes deny himself a simple pleasure like a cup of coffee in the morning\u2014not as a means of pleasing God, but simply to be sure that he is not becoming enslaved to the coffee.\u00a0 Because the believer realizes that his body is God\u2019s temple (6:19,20) he is very careful what he allows into the temple.\u00a0 The question he asks about every thought and every deed is: Does this glorify God.\u00a0 Thus the cry of his life is: \u201cWhether therefore ye eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God! (10:31) or \u201cWhatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus\u201d (Colossians 3:17).<\/p>\n

God has called us to liberty!\u00a0 II Corinthians 3:17 affirms this when Paul says: \u201cWhere the Spirit of the Lord is there is liberty.\u201d\u00a0 And Paul says in Galatians 5:1: \u201cStand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has set you free and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage.\u201d\u00a0 Paul also asserts that the Christian is \u201cdelivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.\u201d\u00a0 God can conquer all our habits and give us victory.\u00a0 The physical and chemical dependencies we have created can be vanquished by God\u2019s Spirit.\u00a0 Yield to Him and allow His prompting to govern your response rather than yielding to your flesh. In many ways the battle is won or lost not by fighting our flesh, but rather by yielding control to God\u2019s Spirit.<\/p>\n

\"Share<\/a>