Bound Up Strength

Scripture:
"But no one can enter the strong man's house and plunder his property unless he first binds the strong man, and then he will plunder his property." Mark 3:27

Observation:
In the context of this passage, Jesus is talking about His ability to cast out Satan's demons. But this morning as I converse with God on this passage, I hear Him speaking it to me.

Many times, I am unaware of the binding that Satan has placed around my strengths until I notice the plundering taking place in my life.

Application:
This morning as I woke up and began to pray I really sensed the presence of God reminding me that his mercies are new everyday. That is an incredible sensation. Each day, my slate is cleansed. All I have to do is be willing to humble myself before God and truly confess my sins. Once that takes place God's faithfulness proves worthy of my pursuit as the mistakes I make slip beneath the surface of God's ocean of forgiveness.

But I sometimes forget about one little detail of sin. While God's mercies are new and my sins are no longer held against me; consequences still linger. Oh man do I hate those. I am really no different that my kids in that I always want a free pass.

When I give in to temptation, I allow Satan a foothold in my life. This morning as I think about footholds and view them through the filter of this verse from Mark, I see them in a little different light.

The footholds can come in the form of binding up my ability to defend myself from certain things. Often I am unaware of that this has happened until I have been over run and in affect have had something in my life plundered. In those moments, it is easy to focus my attention on the plundering.

There are four main areas that can be plundered in my life; my spiritual life, my family life, my work life, and my personal life. All hell breaks loose in some of those areas and I often go immediately to the fire and try to put it out. But this is senseless. It is just like squirting water at the tip of the flame versus spraying it at its base.

Prayer:
Life is so fragile. The seemingly insignificant choices that I make often create a chain reaction of events that I never saw coming. In the blink of an eye my reality can be altered and my normal can become forever redefined. I make decisions at such a great pace that it seems impossible to keep track of them all. In a brief moment of weakness, I allow myself to be bound by Satan and grant him access to plunder certain areas of my life.

I ask this morning for a heightened sense of awareness of the things that have me bound. Help me look past the symptoms of my issues and see the true cause of what I face. My mind, will, and emotions often rally against me staying sober in the midst of adversity, but I ask for the strength to overcome these and stay focused on working my way through the things that come at me.

There are areas of my life in which I find my strength is bound up. There are attacks against which I am powerless to resist. I ask this morning that You help me find the bindings which have wrapped up my strength in these areas and teach me to set myself free.