Entanglements

We are encouraged in Hebrews 12:1 to cast aside very sin that weighs us down.

"Let us also therefore, having so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, laying aside every weight, and sin which so easily entangles us, run with endurance the race that lies before us," (Darby Bible Translation).

The word entanglement in the original means easily surrounding, encircling and easily distracted (Strong's Concordance).

We can think of many things that trip us up. A word we didn't mean to say or some temptation we found ourselves giving into with out much resistance.

Then there's another entanglement - those subtle ropes like Samson who being bound as he slept on Delilah's lap - each time he was able to break free until he gave away the secret of his strength.

So too are the seductive entanglements that slowly wrap around our spiritual life. True to the definition of entanglement, it circles us until we are so constricted that we no longer able to run the race set before us. Our feet are slowed and we stumble badly. Sadly, for some they are so bound they are unable to get back up unless someone frees them.

Consider your friends and associates. Are you leading them by example of what a Christian is or are you captured by their words and envious of the way they live outside of Christ? Do you compromise or relax the hold of living in the fear of God to being afraid that you might lose your friends, upset your co-workers or disrupt your marriage when speaking the truth in love?

It's not always the visible cords or ropes that we can see but the impulses of our heart to attach itself to the things that are sensual and earthly. When we agree to the earthly we soon discover it's more than an organic experience but a demonic one as well. But we have this promise in Psalms 91:3 that God will deliver us from the snare of fowler (type of a satanic bird catcher).

This one truth in 1 John 3:19-20 will keep us free from any entanglements - since condemnation (the sense of not getting it right) - is the most common rope that constricts us. Scripture says, "This is how we know that we belong to the truth and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence: If our hearts condemn us, we know that God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything."

It is a sacrificial choice. Bind your self to Him and you can only soar to heights unknown.

God is the LORD, which hath shewed us light: bind the sacrifice with cords, even unto the horns of the altar. (Psalms 118:27, KJV).