All tied up

Ever realize how various things in life have a hold on some people?
It could be greediness and you can notice the hold it might have on a person when someone asks them for financial help and the way they react.
It could be pride, and you realize it when they adamantly try their hardest to prove themselves right or strive for perfection.
It could be covetousness and you see the saddened expression simply because they could not get what they want.
It could be jealousy and you see the hurtful things they may say to someone or the put-down remarks they shoot with...
Notice something here?

They all pertain to self. They all pertain to a "I look out for me and me alone" attitude. These holds/bondages are painful when targeted. We strive to protect and justify these holds when in fact they destroy us, friendships, relationships and the people around us.


God tells us to be humble.(Proverbs 3:34)
God tells us to be content in all things.(Phillipians 4:11)
God tells us to make Him the center of our lives. Why? Because when we make Him the center and not us, these holds fall away and their grip on our lives loosen. We are free to love, care, and give. Jesus Himself is the most selfless person that ever walked on this earth...and for what? To make sure the selfish creatures He loves have a way to Heaven.
He doesn't want us to be selfish. He wants us to live like Him. However, not of our strength but by His alone. The life He asks us to live is impossible, you might say. And you're absolutely right. It is impossible. But with Jesus...it's not. It's not impossible. The cords of jealousy, greed, lust, pride, coveting and so much more fall to the ground when we make it about Him. When we put aside ourselves and make Him Lord of everything.
Don't be tied up with yourself. I know how it is, trust me. I'm the most selfish person you might ever meet and I know how these cords hurt. They do nothing but make you the worst person and you're never happy and satisfied with what you gained for yourself. Instead the cords dig their hold deeper into you as you chase harder after pleasing yourself. Causing them to be stronger to the point you are suffocating...the cords cause sin to have an immense grip ending in death. Not physical death. But the death that means being seperated from God because you held on longer to the very thing that can destroy the soul. Don't let these things keep you tied up. Make Jesus Lord. Every single day, remind yourself, it's for the Lord. Their is true fulfillment and unspeakable joy because we were created for that purpose. To make Him the center.
Thank You, Lord for showing me this.

 

"³⁷ Jesus said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’³⁸ This is the first and great commandment. ³⁹ And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’-Matthew 22:37-39

 

^"17 This I say, therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk, in the futility of their mind, ¹⁸ having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart; ¹⁹ who, being past feeling, have given themselves over to lewdness, to work all uncleanness with greediness.

²⁰ But you have not so learned Christ, ²¹ if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus: ²² that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, ²³ and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, ²⁴ and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness."

Ephesians 4:17-24