Wednesday 4th February - You are worth more than this

DAILY BYTE

Yesterday, I borrowed and changed an old C.S. Lewis thought by saying there are two equal and opposite errors when it comes to sin. The one is to believe in sin too much (we allow it to have far too much power over us), and the second is not to believe that we have any sin at all. We then focussed on the second of these errors - living under the lie that we don’t have any sin at all and how incredibly dangerous this can be to ourselves as well as others.

Today we will be looking more closely at the first of the errors - when we allow our weaknesses to have too great a power over us and thereby enslave us. It is a lie that we are all too ready to believe that we cannot break free from our addictions and fears. But before we discuss that further, let’s have a quick look at how exactly sin does enslave us.

There is an old South Pacific story told of how one can capture a monkey. Fruit is placed into a bottle which is then tied to a tree. The bottle has an opening just big enough for the monkey’s hand to reach into, but not large enough for the monkey’s fist to leave. When the monkey reaches into the bottle to grab the fruit it finds that it cannot bring its hand out of the bottle unless it lets go of the fruit. And so there the monkey would sit until it was captured – unable to move, not because it can’t, but simply because it won’t.

The real question is – does the monkey have the fruit or does the fruit have the monkey? Likewise, whatever binds us, will have power over us for as long as we hold onto it!

The good news is that Jesus can set us free from whatever grips us. It will never be easy, but the love of God can free us, forgive us, and restore us. Unlike our fellow human beings, God does not harshly condemn us for our weaknesses.

There is a wonderful story in the movie, ‘The Last Castle,’ which illustrates this. Robert Redford plays a disgraced army general who is sent to military prison. The prison is ruled by a despotic warden, who is not afraid to employ brute force to keep his rule. In one scene, a prison guard is savagely beating a fellow prisoner of Redford’s. Redford grabs the prison guard’s arms in mid-blow, looks into his eyes and says, ‘You are worth more than this.’

You are worth more than this!

This is how Jesus treats our sin, by taking you by the hand and saying – ‘You are worth more than this, I have created you for more!’ Romans 8 reminds us that Jesus Christ will not condemn us but love us and set us free. Our obligation is to not live under the power of sin, but to let go, even of those things we find incredibly difficult to let go of (like the greedy monkeys with their fruit). Don’t live under the lie of this sin, that you cannot break free. The truth of the matter is that Jesus CAN set you free.

You are not a slave to sin. Unless you want to be.

PRAY AS YOU GO

There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus! For this marvellous truth we give thanks O God. We pray that you would help us to break free from our sin and the lies we all too readily believe. We may not be able to break free in our own strength, but in you anything is possible. We bring to you the situations we personally struggle with [NAME THEM] and ask that you would break their power over us and help us to let go. Help us instead to live according to how you created us. In Jesus name. Amen.

FOCUS READING

Romans 8:1-3 (NIV)

Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering.