Cuffed and Shackled

One of the reasons that many people do not like religion is because there are too many "rules."  They do not like being told what they can do or cannot do.  They do not like being told that what they are doing is a sin.  They want the "freedom" do do what they want to do.

The truth of the matter is that true freedom comes from being free from sin and not having those tendencies to want to sin.   True freedom comes from wanting to be with God more than anything and not having those urges to sin.  We are actually chained and shackled by sin.  Don't believe me?  Think of a sin that you are often guilty of and then think about how difficult it is not to commit that sin.  Then think of a sin that you do not have the tendency to commit and think how how easy it is not to commit that sin.

For instance, take the sin of lust.  Lust is something that pulls many people down. Evidence of this is that sex is all around us.  Temptation to lust is everywhere.   It's very difficult for many people to escape from and very difficult for some people not to commit the sin of lust.  

Now take the sin of murder.  True, there is violence every where too.  Violence is on television or in video games.  But not many people have the overwhelming urge to murder someone.  It's safe to say that most people are free of that sin.

Only God gives us true freedom.  Sure, He tells us what is right and wrong.  He gives us the truth.  But we are free to choose.  It's sin and the tendency to truly restrains us.   We can break those shackles of sin though.  Through God's grace we are always able to break free from sin and be with Him.  The problem is that it is not easy for us.  The first thing is often having the WANT to break free from those sins.  We, as humans, often choose to be handcuffed and shackled and to be in a state sin because it's what we are experienced with.  It's what we think is normal.  It's what society tells us is right.

Often times, we would rather wear those chains because of the fear of being free of them.  It is with God's grace that we are able to break those chains but God's grace seems like a hammer and chisel hitting upon those restraints.  As much as we want to be free, we are afraid of the pain that is we are going to have to go through in order to be set free.

So we choose to keep them on.  We lie to ourselves and tell ourselves that it's better to keep them on.  It's better to live this way than to live without that sin that we enjoy.  Nothing is more further from the truth but we choose the path to self destruction way more often than not.  We find it's easier to be shackled down than it is to experience true freedom.