Slavery

Slavery is a despisal thing. Much is said about the horror of it. Yet, not enough is said about the scope of it. Not regarding yesterday, but today. There is no greater slavery than is exercised in America today. It is the slavery to a great master, yourself.

When you yield to something, you will soon realize the tremendous control it has over you. Even though you say, “Oh, I can give up that habit whenever I like,” you  know you can’t. The habit completely dominates you because you willingly yield to it. You may claim you can break a bad habit anytime you want, but experience shows it is a dominating habit. Remember the good definition of a habit is, “I have to have it now.”

Scripture defines slavery this way, “…you are that one’s slaves whom you obey….” (Romans 6:16)

You, and you only, are responsible for the things that control you. If you are under the control of some slavish habit it is because you willfully submitted yourself to it. It is a damnable tyrant. Conversely, if you obey and follow Jesus it is because somewhere along the way you determined to.

Some bad habits are obvious, such as drug addiction, and using profane language. Some more covert ones are equally bad, if not more controlling, such as, greed, lust, covetousness, or avarice. Consider lust, whether it is the lust of the flesh or the lust of the mind, it can be controlling. Whether obvious or obscure all bad habits can be controlling, enslaving that is.

There is no power within the human soul itself that is capable of breaking the bondage of the nature created by yielding. Bad habits are more difficult to free oneself from in the energy of the flesh than it was for a physical slave to escape from an owner who was a taskmaster.

In the form of slavery once practiced in America there was only one way to freedom, redemption. It was possible for someone to pay the price of redemption and purchase their freedom. 

No release or escape from one’s habitual master will ever come from any human power, but it can come through the power of redemption. You must yield yourself in utter humiliation to the only One who can break the dominating power in your life, the Redeemer, the Lord Jesus Christ. 

In a previous era the church sang the truth: 

“He breaks the power of canceled sin, He sets the prisoner free;
His blood can make the foulest clean; His blood availed for me.”

Hopefully your heart can sing that song of liberation. If not, it can as of now if you yield to Him and resolve to obediently submit to His Lordship. Be free, do it.

Good habits are also hard to break. Break free of old bad habits and start today to make some new good ones to replace bad ones.