ARE YOU ‘BOUND’?

Are you bound?

To answer that question one needs a bit more information.

Bound to bound by bound up bound in.

We think we are free. We’re not. We are all bound to, by, up, or in something. And why? Because we have chosen to be.

I am bound to my wife and she is to me. It is a sacred bond. I chose it. So did she.

We are bound by inherited beliefs. There are blue dog democrats who have several generations of ancestors who have always voted one way.

We are bound up in circumstances that influence everything we do.

We are bound in relationships that may be helpful or harmful depending on their nature.

Yet, isn’t it interesting that the same mental processes we go through in choosing to BE bound by something that we feel is beneficial to us, we fail to use in our efforts to NO LONGER BE bound by something that is harmful to us.

In the Old Testament, strongholds were places of safety and blessing. The prophet Nahum refers to God as a stronghold:

The Lord is a stronghold in the day of trouble, and He knows those who trust in Him.(Nahum 1:7)

The Apostle Paul, in 2 Corinthians 10:4, refers to a stronghold as any closely held belief that exalts itself against the knowledge of God; any thoughts that are the source of beliefs, actions and behaviors that are an abomination to God.

The question is, am I bound in a stronghold, that is keeping me FROM the relationship God wants to have with me?

Or, am I bound in a stronghold that is enabling me to experience all the blessings God created for me to enjoy from His bountiful and merciful hands?

The very same process that keeps me bound in the former, can free me from the latter.

Even though it is my choice, it is a choice I am not able to make on my own.

All I have to do is desire to make it, then God steps in and the most remarkable thing happens. He sanctifies it, He makes it Holy to Himself which is the beginning of a process that really changes everything.

Like the prophet Nahum said, above.

OH! REALLY? Hmm