A rut well-worn by our travels

So you must continue to live in a way that gives meaning to your salvation. Do this with fear and respect for God. Yes, it is God who is working in you. He helps you want to do what pleases him, and he gives you the power to do it. (Philippians 3:12-13)

Sin has a way of wearing a path in our lives. We don't even realize it, but there is a 'groove' worn as we continue to follow the same old patterns. Much like the elephant pegged to the ground, sin wears away a groove we seem to just contentedly walk around within. We allow a worn path in our lives when we go through the process of the repetitive actions of a particular habit or sin. It may take a little effort to get out of the rut if we have been traveling in that rutted path for a long time. But...Jesus doesn't leave us in the rut, nor does he limit us in anyway. He totally removes all the reminders of the bondage - but we have to change our thought pattern about our bondage. We need to realize we are free! 

The elephant doesn't realize he is free - because he has accepted his position around that staked chain. If we want to be free, we need to be enabled to be free (shackles / bondage removed) and then we need to be "authorized" to take the steps outside of that place of bondage (enabled again and again until we learn to walk in our freedom). The elephant may need a little goading to move beyond the rutted pathway - we might just need the same! No freedom comes without a little work on our part. Jesus does the "lion's share" of the work - enabling us to be free and then authorizing us to live in that freedom. Our part is to take the first step into that freedom. 

No first step ever ends with just one step - we must continue to walk away from the rutted path. Until we learn to stop returning to the place of our bondage, we won't be truly free. Remember this - there is no stake or shackle left in that place, but the rut may remain. The shackles have been fully removed. When we return to the place of our bondage, it is because we remember it well. The rut isn't easily forgotten because it is so 'well-worn'. We need to have our remembrance changed! This is why God reminds us of the importance of the daily renewing of our thoughts - in order to begin to form a new view of our place of bondage - as something we don't really need or want to return to ever again. It would be silly for us to stand around in the same place forever just because it was a well-worn path when all the shackles have been removed which held us in that spot for so long. 

So, let's allow the Holy Spirit to change our remembrance of the spot of our bondage and help us to form new memories of our liberty! The path may have been well-worn by our frequent travels into that sinful pattern or habit, but God has provided a new path for us to travel. We just need to step out of the rut long enough to enjoy it! Just sayin!