You are slaves of the one you obey. Romans 6:16
The first
thing to do when confronting a habit or mindset that controls me is to face an
unwelcome fact: I am responsible for being controlled, because at some point I
gave in. If I am a slave to myself—to my habits and urges, my egotisms and
selfishness—I am to blame, because I gave in to myself. Likewise, if I obey
God, it’s because I’ve yielded myself to him.
We learn
the truth of this in the most ridiculously small things. “I can give up that
habit whenever I want,” you say. You cannot. Try it, and you will find that the
habit absolutely dominates you. Give in to selfishness in childhood, and you
will find it the most binding tyranny on earth. Yield for one second to any
form of lust—to the thought “I must have this thing at once”—and you will be
chained to that thing, even if you hate yourself for it.
No human
power can break the bondage of a character that has been shaped by giving in.
Only the power of the redemption is sufficient. You must yield yourself in
utter humiliation to the only one who can set you free, the Lord Jesus Christ:
“He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and … to set the
oppressed free” (Luke 4:18). It is easy to sing “He can break every fetter” and
still be living a life of obvious slavery to yourself. Only Jesus can break the
chains, and only when you let him. Yield yourself to the Lord, and he will set
you free.
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