Chained to yesterday

Whenever I think about guilt, I think about something I once heard about circus elephants.  When the elephants are just babies, the trainer puts a shackle around one of their legs, with a chain attached to a
stake.


These babies are maybe three to four hundred pounds at best, and they will try and try to get away from that chain. But they can’t.



But the strange thing is that massive adult elephants—which may weigh a couple of tons apiece—can be held by the very same shackle as the one used on the youngsters.



How is this possible? Number one, elephants really do have great memories. But number two, they aren’t all that bright. The adult elephant remembers how he was staked up as a baby and couldn’t get away from the stake.


And at a certain point, as a baby, he became convinced that he could never get away. So now as an adult, he doesn’t even try. That elephant is not chained to the stake; he’s chained to the idea that he can never get away. That’s how a ten-pound stake can hold down a two-ton elephant.



Some of us have found ourselves tied to our past just like a circus elephant chained to a stake. This is one of the primary tools and schemes of the enemy to defeat Christians and to keep us from finishing strong. What does the enemy do? He simply mines the shadowy depths of our memory. He throws
our past back at us.


It may be one major sin from years past, and we still grieve over it and deeply regret it. Yes, we’ve been forgiven. Yes, we belong to Jesus Christ, but that failure keeps drifting back into our minds like a dark, paralyzing fog whenever we seek to move out and do something significant for the Lord.



We’re like that elephant chained to the stake. That big old creature isn’t physically restricted by that stake at all. He has the strength and resources to yank that thing out of the ground as if it were a toothpick. Yet the elephant remains chained by its memory.





And so are many of us. Maybe it was sexual immorality. Or lying to get your job. Or cruelty. Or neglect. Or a broken vow or pledge to God. Whatever it was, the enemy keeps throwing that one sin up in your face. The enemy uses it to paralyze you, intimidate you, and neutralize you. No, Satan cannot take away your salvation. He simply can not, except you give it away. But he can rob you of your joy. And all he has to do is bring up that one past sin.





Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the creator of master detective Sherlock Holmes, was a great practical joker. In one of his more evil pranks, he sent out identical telegrams to twelve of his friends. The telegrams were anonymous and simply said: “All has been discovered. Flee at once.” What’s funny is that within twenty-four hours, all twelve men had fled the country.





We all have skeletons in the closet. We all have things in our past that embarrass us and shame us. As a result, some of us are chained to the past today. And it’s hard to run a race when you’re pulling that kind of chain. You’re going to need some strong help to cut through those rusty old links.





The scriptures in Revelation 12:10 called Satan the accuser of the brethren, he has been cast down, and in John 10:10the bible defines the Job of Satan as to steal, kill and destroy. Do not allow him to either steal, kill or destroy your joy in the Lord. That’s the worst he can do. Jesus overcame him and gave us the victory.





Rejoice, you are more than conquerors