A WORD WITH YOU
By Ron Hutchcraft
#5223 - "Breaking the Cycle of Pain"
John 8:34, 36
Fill in the blank. Dog collars are for _________. Dogs, that's right.
Or, in one case, a not-so-bright nephew. My friend's nephew decided it
would be fun to put his dog collar on around his own neck. It wasn't just
any dog collar; it was the kind that gives the dog a little shock when he's
barking too loud. Doesn't sound like something they should be selling, but
this guy owned one. You want to guess the rest? Without thinking, he yelled
something to someone across the yard, which triggered a shocking reaction
from the collar, which made the young man scream in pain, which gave him
another shock, which caused him to shout "Ow!" again. Which caused - well,
you get the idea.
A bad choice. Pain as a result. Doing something because you're hurting,
and causing even more pain - compounding pain. That is a cycle you or
someone you know may be trapped in right now, and it's hard to break out of
that cycle of pain. Hard, but not impossible.
A lot of our bad choices would come under the Bible heading of "sin" -
doing something in our life our way instead of God's way. Maybe it looked
like fun. Maybe it looked like it would help you meet a need or get ahead
or get out of a jam. Or it could be you were just curious. It seemed like a
good idea at the time; like putting on a collar that would ultimately
inflict major pain. Our word for today from the Word of God in John 8:34
and 36 says, "Whoever commits sin is a slave of sin." That's what you don't
count on. First, sin captivates you. Then it captures you. You thought you
could stop. You can't. You thought you could get out any time. Wrong.
Someone has wisely pointed out that sin always takes you farther than
you ever thought you'd go, it keeps you longer than you ever thought you'd
stay, and it costs you more than you ever thought you'd pay. We really do
become slaves to our sinning; whether it's a pattern of lying, of lusting,
of losing it when we're angry, of living for ourselves. And there's no
freedom until you first admit you're hooked; you're powerless to stop the
sinning and the compounding pain that's coming from it.
Like that young man, yelling for help when the dog collar shocked him,
we do things to deal with the pain that cause more pain. We lie, we cover
up, we sin even more, or we do things to try to sedate the pain. Then we
get hooked on the sedative, too.
But here comes the hope, right after the statement about being a slave
to sin. "But if the Son shall set you free, you will be free indeed." That
son is the Son of God. Jesus Christ died on the cross to break the power of
sin. The Bible says, "He carried our sins in His body on the tree so we
could die to sin" (1 Peter 2:24). And He stands ready to help you break out
of the bondage of sin and the cycle of pain that sin causes, if you'll call
your sin what it is and pour it all out to Jesus. Admit you can't do a
thing to beat it and you fall at His feet in total surrender.
If He has the power to walk out of His grave, don't you think He's got
the power to beat the sin that keeps beating you? Don't keep trying to deal
with it your way. All you're doing is making it worse. There's only one cry
that will set you free - a cry to Jesus. You've been sin's slave long
enough. This can be the day that you go free!
Copyright (c) 2007, Ron Hutchcraft.
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"From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven has been
forcefully advancing, and forceful men lay hold of it."
Matthew 11:12
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