There’s a story out there about a lady who was going to paint her back porch but wanted to protect the floor part. So, she put a double-sided tape all around the edges of the floor with the plan to put down a plastic drop cloth and secure it with the tape. She took her time and when she came back out with the drop cloth…all the tape was gone! Her first thought was that maybe kids had come up and peeled off every bit of the tape but that just didn’t seem reasonable. But who would take the time to come up and remove all the tape? She sighed and started to go back into the house when she saw something moving on the lawn in the backyard. She walked out and realized that it was a large non-venomous snake, but it wasn’t moving away because it was totally entangled in a mass of tape…like what she had put all around the porch floor. It appeared that the snake had crawled up
on the porch and slithered onto the double-sided tape and it stuck to the animal. She figured that the snake had felt the tape stuck to its body and it kept moving all over to try to get unstuck. But in doing so it ended up pulling up all the tape and was now trapped in this tangle of double-sided tape and could hardly move. We humans get caught much like that not with tape but with sin. The Bible tells us that sin can so easily entangle us and keep us from doing what we were created and to do. Sin has a way of sticking and then multiplying and keeping us captured. The Bible tells us to do what that snake would love to do and that is to throw off the sin and then actually start running the race that God has for us in this life. And the best way to throw off that sin and to keep from getting “stuck” again is to keep our eyes on Jesus. Our job is to follow him in what he taught and how he lived. We are to be imitators of Christ Jesus. And whenever we focus our lives on him, we have less opportunity to get tangled up in something that will slow us down and keep us from where and who we are meant to be. Here’s our Bible verse for today…
Hebrews 12:1-2 BSB Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off every encumbrance and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with endurance the race set out for us. (2) Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
Remember I’m praying for you…
PJ
on the porch and slithered onto the double-sided tape and it stuck to the animal. She figured that the snake had felt the tape stuck to its body and it kept moving all over to try to get unstuck. But in doing so it ended up pulling up all the tape and was now trapped in this tangle of double-sided tape and could hardly move. We humans get caught much like that not with tape but with sin. The Bible tells us that sin can so easily entangle us and keep us from doing what we were created and to do. Sin has a way of sticking and then multiplying and keeping us captured. The Bible tells us to do what that snake would love to do and that is to throw off the sin and then actually start running the race that God has for us in this life. And the best way to throw off that sin and to keep from getting “stuck” again is to keep our eyes on Jesus. Our job is to follow him in what he taught and how he lived. We are to be imitators of Christ Jesus. And whenever we focus our lives on him, we have less opportunity to get tangled up in something that will slow us down and keep us from where and who we are meant to be. Here’s our Bible verse for today…
Hebrews 12:1-2 BSB Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off every encumbrance and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with endurance the race set out for us. (2) Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
Remember I’m praying for you…
PJ